One Way Or Another
by sweetPixiesmile
Summary: Kim is being stalked, but who is it and why is this person following her? The answer changes her life, and the world. Chapter are triplets: first two occur concurrently, the third following. Each chapter named for a song; listen when reading. KiGo.
1. One Way or Another Lyrics

**One Way or Another Lyrics****  
by **Debbie Harry and Nigel Harrison  
**performed by Blondie**

One way or another  
I'm gonna find ya  
I'm gonna getcha getcha getcha getcha  
One way or another I'm gonna win ya  
I'm gonna getcha getcha getcha getcha  
One way or another I'm gonna see ya  
I'm gonna meetcha meetcha meetcha meetcha  
One day, maybe next week  
I'm gonna meetcha, I'm gonna meetcha, I'll meetcha  
I will drive past your house  
And if the lights are all down  
I'll see who's around

One way or another  
I'm gonna find ya  
I'm gonna getcha getcha getcha getcha  
One way or another I'm gonna win ya  
I'll getcha, I'll getcha  
One way or another I'm gonna see ya  
I'm gonna meetcha meetcha meetcha meetcha  
One day, maybe next week  
I'm gonna meetcha, I'll meetcha  
And if the lights are all out  
I'll follow your bus downtown  
See who's hanging out

One way or another  
I'm gonna lose ya  
I'm gonna give you the slip, a slip of the hip  
I'm gonna lose ya, I'm gonna trick ya  
One way or another I'm gonna lose ya  
I'm gonna trick ya trick ya trick ya trick ya  
One way or another  
I'm gonna lose ya  
I'm gonna give you the slip

I'll walk down the mall  
Stand over by the wall  
Where I can see it all  
Find out who ya call  
Lead you to the supermarket checkout  
Some specials and rat food, get lost in the crowd

One way or another I'm gonna getcha, I'll getcha, I'll getcha getcha getcha getcha  
(Where I can see it all, find out who ya call)

One way or another I'm gonna getcha, I'll getcha, I'll getcha getcha getcha getcha  
(Where I can see it all, find out who ya call)

One way or another I'm gonna getcha, I'll getcha, I'll getcha getcha getcha getcha  
(Where I can see it all, find out who ya call)


	2. Chapter One: One Way or Another

**One Way Or Another**

**

* * *

**Kim was alone, once again. Ron was doing an invitational tour of the Midwest with the team, having become the Middleton Mad Dogs star running back since first term. The tweebs had gone to a lecture that their dad was conducting at the International Aeronautics Convention in Japan. Mom was in Hawaii for the American Medical Association Conference. Monique was working extra shift to cover the money she'd blown over Christmas. That left Kim to her own devices. All alone, with her stalker.

Sure she'd known about it. A year and a half ago, she'd felt the itch, the rising of the hairs on the nape of her neck, her aura disturbed by the constant vigilance of another. At first she though she was just being paranoid; after almost eighteen months of crime fighting, she thought that there must be someone who'd be interested in hitting her at home, where it would hurt. But after a week of it, she asked Wade to do random surreptitious scans around her. He never did turn anything up.

It wasn't so much a constant presence, but it was the most intense when she was alone, and that made her heart trip-hammer with dread. At the mall. At cheerleading practise. At school. Sometimes even on the bus, when she'd head to the Middleton Hospital for volunteer work. When she'd worked the late weekend shift at Bueno Nacho, and subsequently Club Banana. At home, when she was in bed.

After three months she thought that the stalker would have given up or made a move. But the presence would turn up in unexpected places. The school bathroom. The mall elevator. The beach shower stall. Nana's Florida old folks home.

There were no pictures on the Internet or even the In-Terror Net.

Six months in, Kim was pissed. She just couldn't seem to shake the presence once it started, nor could she identify the stalker. She would whip around corners and ask Wade for scans. She'd flag Global Justice for a transport tube with the pretence of wanting to speak to Doctor Director, or even Will Du. She'd even call in ride favours to see if she could lose the presence. When people, Betty, Will and Wade began giving her looks, she stopped.

Maybe it was the tweebs pranking her. But for six months?

Nine months after, she felt resigned. The presence, once it made itself known, would stay with her, sometimes as briefly as five minutes, other times, for hours. Rain, shine, sleet, or snow.

Everything changed six months ago, a year after it had started.

Kim was walking home from school after an extended cheer practise. It was summer, and with high school sports on hiatus, the cheer squad focused on competitions. Between Kim and Bonnie, their squad would consistently place in the top three if they didn't outright win. Regionals, nationals, invitations; the squad would be busy all summer. Including her world-saving hobby and her part-timer status at Club Banana, she'd little time for the basics of food and sleep.

She was crossing the street when she heard the distant roar of engines. She crossed the deserted road quickly and started walking, the presence with her. She could hear the roar approaching the intersection she'd just crossed, when the siren of Middleton Police Cruisers cut through the air. Behind her, five cars thundered by. Two more peeled north, opposite of Kim's direction, tires screeching.

Even now she could still smell the acrid smoke of burning rubber as if it was just yesterday. Two other cars screeched through the intersection. Turned in her direction. The first car, a blood red Honda Civic, fishtailed, losing speed; the one slipstreaming behind, a silver mustang coupe, had a lead foot. As if captured in slow motion highspeed video camera, Kim remembered how the second car's tires jumped as they hit a manhole cover, launching the car up even as the first car's rear dipped as the driver struggled for control. Police cruisers were just entering the intersection behind them, red and white lights strobing through the dark, the beams distinct in the smoke pouring out of the tires. The second car's bumper cleared the edge of the first car and the forward momentum launched the silver car into the air, right at Kim. As the car flew into the lamppost in front of her, the presence intensified.

A sudden, heavy blow smacked Kim right in the stomach, driving the air out of her as the car began to descend toward her, the lamp standard whipping downwards. Glass, small pieces of the red car spraying up as the Civic spun wildly at the collision of the second car. She was lifted off her feet even as the silver mustang impacted the ground inches from her. She was only dimly aware that it was an arm that had wrapped around her waist, a strong, warm body pressed against her as the presence whisked her away from the steel carnage that was now flipping it's way toward a hundred year old oak tree. Reaching the apex of the swing, the lithe body let go of whatever it had used to give its trajectory and Kim and the presence dropped to the sidewalk, ten feet from the grooves carved into the sidewalk by the tumbling car. And of a sudden, the presence left her side, even as she reached out to grasp it. In the sparks of the gas lamp as it shattered on the walk, Kim saw long dark hair, smelled a sweet scent.

And then the presence was gone.

Kim was left the midst of broken glass and metal. The red car eventually careened into the storefront of the local barbershop. Kim helped other passersby and the police extricate the drivers from the mauled vehicles. The mustang driver had crushed his right shoulder when the car had come down and flipped, end on end before coming to a thunderous halt in the tree.

The drivers were eventually all rounded up. Just dumb rich kids who'd taken their parent's cars for a joy ride and had begun racing after watching Quick and Quicker, a film that had been criticized for encouraging street racing.

But all Kim could think about was the warmth. The strength. The smell of the presence. The long dark hair.

She thought she knew who it was now. Kim wasn't stupid. The timing was just too right. She wanted the presence to make itself known though. She wanted to thank it. Wanted to know the why of it. She wanted.... she wasn't sure what she wanted from it.

She obsessed about it.

Dreamed about it.

Four months ago, began fantasizing about it.

What would it take to make the presence break its silence and it's solitude?

She began to flirt with it. First it started with small secret smiles. After a week of that, poses. A slight arch of a back, a slight turn of the waist, a slight lean to the posture, forward or back.

Never in public, of course. For the presence only.

Three months past, the flirting extended to clothing in the privacy of her room. Hot pants. Short skirts. Plunging necklines. Loose sleeves. Lingerie.

It was eating up her Club Banana paycheck. Ron and Monique began to comment on how they weren't hanging out enough. Even Bonnie snarked at how she rushed home after practise.

Kim swore she could feel the presence get closer with each level, become more intense with each inhibition removed.

One month ago, she took it to a whole new level.

She did her research; the internet was chock full of sexy do-it-yourself videos . She learned the belly dance. The pole dance. The striptease. And while she did it, she could feel her heart racing, her skin turning sensitive and shivering, her face hot and flushed.

She'd never done... it... before, but in some of the videos, the girls seemed really into... it.

She began fondling herself. Nothing too radical. A slight tease on the nipples. A caress on her belly or her neck. Just enough to get her breath short and her body flushed. Then she'd turn in with a small secret smile. Something shared.

But each session went longer.

Hotter.

Wetter.

The last time, she had finally made herself at home between her legs. She could still remember how her chest had trembled, her heart thundering, how the forces had rushed through her, her legs straining, constricting, how it had flashed through her body, twisting it, a searing white hotness, waves of something indescribable washing through her, curling her toes and tingling her hair. How it seemed like someone else's voice had gone "Oh-oh-oh-oh!" Yet it was hers. But it was what she found minutes after the presence had left that had made her smile.

Her window sat atop the roof of the first floor, and in the snow frosted tiles was a single, size six footprint just below.

Tonight she wore a plum, sequined and strapless bra that pushed up her perky breasts. A plum garter belt skirt hung seductively over her hips, only giving divine flashes of a plum thong with black lace trim. The belt hooked onto black stockings. Black garters and black lacy fingerless gloves completed her hunting outfit.

All this time, she thought that she was the prey, that she was the victim, the target.

Tonight, she was the huntress.

When the presence made itself known, Kim stalked toward the bed, giving a little twirl as as she sat, crossing her legs, dangling one stocked foot above the other. She leaned back on her elbows, throwing her crimson hair over one shoulder. She began to caress her belly and her chest, describing gentle patterns across her skin as it began to pebble with goosebumps. She ran her fingers up her neck, then down her sides. One hand went up to caress her lips as the other began to tease her breast through the bra.

Back and forth her hands floated, touching, coaxing, squeezing. Kim felt a dampness begin to form below; she could feel her mind become enveloped in a tunnel of pleasure, of urgency. The presence began to grow, began to pulse, as if a living breathing thing, that wrapped her in an indescribable warmth, beguiling her, enticing her on and on, further and further along, soothing her even as it charmed her.

The hero's hands began squeezing her breasts, teasing the nipples with her short manicured nails, tantalizing, stroking caressing until they were painfully hard, begging for release. She sat up onto her knees, reached up with one hand and released the clasp hidden behind the ribbon in the middle and the bra fell away. Her nipples stood proud in its arousal even as she ran her fingers lightly along her toned flanks, past her ribs and around the swell of her breasts. Then down the valley between. Once again, up from her thighs, the silken inner thigh, flipping the skirt gently even as her hands converged on her erect mounts and began to squeeze in earnest.

Her breath was coming hard and deep now, her voice, almost foreign in its state of excitement, mewling, gasping, panting. Each touch, each caress was simply another electric layer of arousal, kindling for a bright rolling flame.

Kim imagined the presence, a lithe muscular figure, kneeling outside, panting onto the cool window pane, the breath frosting as her excitement stimulated the presence toward its own rolling crest, climbing, swirling, engulfing thought, drowning in desire.

As the aura of the presence began to undulate around her, she reached down, slowly, ever so slowly to her thighs, dragging her nails along her flushed skin, leaving runnels of white that immediately turned an inflamed pink. It was all she could do to not cry out when she touched her core, her inner self. Even through the laced undergarment, the pleasure pooling almost painfully in the soles of her feet resonated through her in concentric circles. The aura of the presence began to shift and whirl in time with the small shocks of pleasure that radiated from her.

Higher and higher, the layers fell into place, as if the thrill of the presence stirred the flames to a brighter intensity. A pressure seemed to build from with in her, the passion rising, plateauing, then rising higher, then plateauing, a frenzied cycle of touch, pressure and emotion. And when she felt aflame with ardour, the agony of waiting a pleasure in of itself, when the world had compressed into a shining corona as the burning fervour was masked by a tormenting self-restraint, when it became unbearable, her hand dipped beneath the lace.

In a cascading supernova, Kim screamed, her green eyes open yet blinded by throes of passionate release, her body shaking, writhing in pleasure. But even as she rode the shockwaves of bliss, she thought she could hear the cries of the presence as well, joining hers, intensifying them, magnifying the seismic forces that tore through her straining body.

The quaking seemed to continue forever, and even afterwards her legs twitched with the aftershocks running rampant through her. With the vestiges of thought returning, she forced her body's lassitude away, reached beneath her pillow and pressed the button on the remote hidden there earlier that evening. She waited for a moment before rising to her feet, her muscles jumping in fatigue, and put on a long wool jacket. She stumbled with desire leaden legs to the window and threw it wide open and looked down.

Slumped on the roof just below the window was a green and black catsuited woman in a forest green jacket. The jacket and and catsuit were open, the suit down to the crotch. Even now, the unconscious woman's hand still nestled in the tight confines of the suit. Kim reached under the sill and removed the tiny remote release canister of sleeping gas and grinned.

With comet powers, the gas wasn't likely to keep the woman down for long. She had to move fast.

* * *

Shego stirred, languidly stretching, the glow of her orgasm warming her body, her head still muddled. She'd never passed out from masturbating before, but then she'd never crushed so hard on another person before either. But when she tried to bring her hands down to close up her catsuit, she found she couldn't. Her eyes snapped open.

It wasn't the glow. She was indoors, safe from the winter cold. Her hands and legs were being restrained by satin lined leather cuffs, tied securely to the posts of the bed on which she lay on. And she was naked! Her eyes widened in shock.

Oh, shit.

She turned her head at the sound of a soft tread. Standing by the bed was Princess, topless, still in her garters, stockings and gloves. In one hand, she held a long iridescent peacock feather which waved back and forth hypnotically. The look on her face made Shego's mouth dry but sent a jolt into her spent loins, quick-charging her lust. All the hero said was one word, with a triumphant, sensual smile.

"Gotcha."


	3. Under My Skin Lyrics

**I've got you under my skin**  
**by Cole Porter**  
**Performed by U2**

I have got you under my skin  
I've got you deep in the heart of me

So deep in my heart  
You're nearly a part of me  
I've got you under my skin

I have tried so not to give in  
I have said to myself this affair  
Never gonna go so well

But why should I try to resist  
When baby I know so well  
That I've got you under my skin

I would sacrifice anything  
Come what might  
For the sake of holding you near  
In spite of a warning voice  
That comes in the night  
It repeats and it shouts in my ear

Don't you know (green)-eyes  
You never can win  
Use your mentality  
Wake up to reality

But each time I do  
Just the thought of you  
Makes me stop before I begin

'cause I've got you under my skin

I'd sacrifice anything  
Come what might  
For the sake of having you near  
In spite of a warning voice  
That comes in the night  
It repeats and it shouts in my ear

Don't you know you old fool  
You never can win  
Use your mentality  
Wake up to reality

But each time that I do  
Just the thought of you  
Makes me stop before I begin

'cause I've got you under my skin  
And I love you (when you're) under my skin


	4. Chapter Two: Under My Skin

**Under My Skin**

Shego stood outside in the snow-covered roof, wondering just what the hell she was doing. Freezing her ass off on the first story rooftop of a freaking cheerleader who'd been taking every opportunity to kill her boss's world domination schemes. A girl, a minor, a skinny-assed, flat-chested redhead. A girl who just wouldn't leave her alone.

It had all started as a lark.

She'd been on the way to the Middleton Physics Lab when she'd spotted the Kimmie. The girl was walking into the local Tex-Mex cholesterol hell-hole, Bueno Nacho with her doofus sidekick and another friend, a black girl. Shego smirked to herself, set the hoverpod down in stealth mode. She leapt onto the sombrero-styled rooftop, swung up to the post of the brightly lit sign, lay down on the dark metal frame and waited. An accomplished chi master, she felt the girl's aura step under the lip of the roof, and with a toss of her luxuriant black hair over a shoulder as she lifted her eyes above the edge of the sign. Pumpkin was reaching out for the door and pulled it open, but as she did, her head whipped about, her eyes narrowed, searching. Shego squinted to reduce the glare of the zigzagging neon light along the edge beneath her. Several times, the girl's eyes swept past where she lay.

"Yeah, just a sec, Ron, I need to check something!" Princess called into the restaurant in response to a question. The girl went around the back and stood near the dumpster, but quickly retreated as the smell of rancid grease got to her. She then backed into a tree and nearly tripped over the raised cement wall the surrounded the summer patio. Eventually, the hero gave up, shrugged and followed her friends into the eatery.

Shego had to employ all her discipline to keep from laughing out loud.

Thirty minutes later, the little girl and her sidekick showed up as Shego was dragging out the Lab's latest whatever-ray that Drakken had asked her to steal.

"Gawd Princess, you're gonna put on pounds eating at a fat factory like Bueno Nacho," she snarked as the two of them closed on each other.

The girl's eyes had widened, then narrowed. "How did you...?

"I can smell it in your hair, cupcake," she said with a smirked. So innocent! Kimmie accepted that sucker line so readily, Shego almost fell down laughing.

After that, she'd made a point to buzz the cheerleader. After a week of following the red-head, the girl would whip out her little blue doohicky and ask the nerdlinger for scans. It was a scream.

Shego wondered exactly hoe close she could get before Kim would catch a sense of her. She began to experiment. At first it was about fifteen feet. But as time wore on, she found that if she set a trail of low frequency plasma along the girl's route, the deep green eyes would narrow and Kim would glance about suspiciously. Even without the scanner. Perhaps it was the smell of ozone, or a faint residue of her comet powers; the girl seemed to be able to sense where she'd been. It was fascinating. It was hilarious.

Shego started charging things from a distance. The fan in the school bathroom. The rail of the mall elevator. She'd even followed the girl to Florida and zapped the ventilation distributor of the room Kim was staying at.

Six months in became an even bigger challenge. She needed her best piloting, hacking and stealth skills. A few times, Kim got wind of her and dropped into a GJ tube. That one was easy, Shego would just charge the girl's clothing. Other times, she'd duck behind a building and demand a sensor sweep by her little nerd friend. Kim was good, but sometimes, she'd forget that she moved in a three dimensional world. She even called in rides to exotic locales; that one was rough, taking large swathes of time and forcing Shego to lunge for her hoverpod and follow in full stealth mode. The girl was getting desperate.

But nine months after it all started something changed. Kim gave up. The girl's shoulders slumped in defeat. But instead of feeling victorious, Shego felt... empty. Unsatisfied. Unfulfilled. Looking at Kim did something to the stone-cold witch that hadn't happened in a long time. It made her yearn for yesterday.

It was like a light had gone out of the girl and it made the woman's chest constrict. It made her think back to when Kim's lightning reflexes had her diving for the nearest manhole cover. And now the girl had just accepted defeat. Reduced to bearing with her lot. So unlike her. So fucking unlike her. It pained her to see the girl like that, to hear the sigh of resignation, that flicker of the lids and the sadness in those vibrant eyes.

Shego would fly out to see the girl, but when confronted by that melancholy, sometimes, the woman could only stand it for a few minutes before lighting out back to the latest lair. What the hell? Shego would ask herself. What was he point of tweaking the girl if the entertainment had completely left the activity?

But Shego continued to dog the girl's steps, follow each turn. She couldn't stop. She hated to see Pumpkin like this, she knew she was the cause of it. Each and every day, she would tell herself not to subject herself to such a thing, yet the next morning, her wandering mind would set her ass in the hoverpod, her hands on the control stick, and she'd be back on her Kim-watch. It was during another torturous vigil that Shego had a revelation.

And suddenly, Shego felt another dusty, unused sensation.

Fear.

She jumped back into the hoverpod and flew as fast as the engine could go, back to the permanent lair, the lair that Drakken never used as his base of operations when working on one scheme or another. The lair that was home between plots. She took the elevator down the fifty-foot shaft into the main habitation dome, dashed to her room and curled up in bed, shivering under her black satin sheets, still in her full catsuit.

What the fuck was wrong with her? It was just a prank, right? A lark to laugh at the redhead for, right? Shego could remember the day, the hour, the minute it had all started.

What she couldn't recall, didn't plan on, hadn't counted on, was when it became so deep.

She'd been tailing the girl for over nine months, needling her with her eyes, taunting and teasing her with her glow. Trying to get into the little goody-goody's head. She wanted to see if Kim would jump when she said how high, if the girl would rev-up when she said go. And now it seemed that the Almighty Shego, Terror of the Western World, Most Wanted Woman Alive, on the top ten list of most wanted criminals in eleven countries, master of several forms of Kung Fu, hacker par excellence and International Thief...

...was crushing on a teenaged girl who'd just gotten her drivers license.

It was pathetic. It was horrific. And it was divine.

Shego simply could no longer help herself. And she discovered, in the end, she didn't give a fuck. She'd never been one to stick to convention. Like the convention of labelling your own sexuality. Either you liked someone or you didn't. Orientation and Sex wasn't part of that equation. She didn't consider herself a free spirit. She simply chose what she desired to be constrained with, to be called.

With that decision firmly in mind, she resumed her daily routine: spar with synthodrones, fly out to see Princess and then take care of her needs in the evening. It was blissful. It was right. It was all she could wish for.

Until the accident.

She'd been watching from the safety of one of the massive banks of night lights while Kim practiced. That was a show that Shego never missed. Kim in her uniformed tank top, the light pleated skirt that swayed and swirled even as the girl tumbled, twirled and jumped. Afterwards, as the hero exited the locker room, Shego followed, now riding the hoverpod in full stealth mode.

As Kim crossed the intersection, Shego noted the speeding vehicles in the distance. The hoverpod flew lower. All of a sudden, red and white lights split the air as a siren wailed. A bad feeling, Shego piloted the pod even lower, close to Kim now.

Five cars sped by in the intersection behind them, then another two cars, that peeled off and headed north. The last two, turning south.

Even as the first car skidded, she flicked on the autopilot and pressed the emergency release on the hoverpod's hatch even as her other hand snatched up a retractable grapple line. The hatch popped up as the red Honda Civic fishtailed and the silver mustang car behind jumped the manhole cover. Even before the Mustang was airborne, Shego hooked the grapple and dove over the edge of the pod. She let the grapple line play out as she headed straight for Kim. The mustang flipped into the light standard, the twenty-five foot pole whipping downward. Kim, half-turning toward the silver metallic carnage, missed Shego's shadowed form as she cut behind her, the woman's left arm wrapping around the girl's waist. As her arm slapped into Kim's toned belly, the green-skinned woman engaged the line's lock. The line immediately snapped taut; Shego kicked both feet skyward to give them an extra push of momentum.

_It's close, going to be close, shit that is really..._ went through Shego's thoughts as their momentum snapped the both of them away from the charging hulk of automobile. The driver's sideview mirror, its shattered glass coming lose even as the housing swept by, tagged the ends of her black hair, shearing two inches off from the mere brush of momentum. The driver, a kid with a pale surprised look stared out of the windshield at the destination of his trajectory. Kim coughed and wheezed, the breath knocked out of her. The thief and the hero swung upwards.

As the silver car flipped past, Shego released the grapple lock and the line played out again, dropping the two of them ten feet from the wreckage scored sidewalk. Shego let Kim slip onto the ground, then engaged the grapple reel. She shot up into the night air, even as the street lamp shattered on the ground just behind the redhead, even as the girl was reaching out toward her. She flipped neatly back into the cockpit and sat for a moment, gasping for air.

The stealthed hoverpod continued on its way, away from the redhead who stared up into the night sky, wondering.

Shego had nearly dislocated her right shoulder from suddenly taking all of Kim's weight on her left arm. The injured part was pierced by red hot spikes of agony. It hurt like hell.

That night, she leaned carefully into her lazy-boy chair and shifted the remote gingerly, before pressing the television's power button. A hundred-and-eight-inch screen illuminated her face, spreading iridescent patterns along her tinted face. The channel had defaulted to the local news station.

"And, now, let's replay that clip for our viewers, of internationally acclaimed teen hero, Kim Possible, and her message to the person who saved her life." The neatly coiffed news anchor turned towards the inset, which enlarged, showing the young girl's round face, as she nodded, answering unheard questions until the audio faded in.

"Yeah, I was just glad to help the police get those guys out. I had to use my laser to cut open the car that crashed into the tree; he'd've been roasted if we'd had to wait for the "jaws of life". But I wouldn't have been able to save that boy's life if that person hadn't saved mine." Kim then turned and stared directly into the camera lens, into Shego's eyes. "I just want to thank the angel who swooped down and saved me. Thank you, with all my heart, really, you were there for me when I needed someone. I-I just Thank God for you..." Kim trailed off as her face pinked in embarrassment. "I don't know what else to say." The camera picked up her flustered mutter as she looked away, an adorable flush deepening on her face.

"And that was Kim Possible, sending out a message of thanks to her unknown rescuer, who pulled her out of the path of one of the crashing vehicles and simply.... Disappeared. Kim's amazing, isn't she?" one of the anchors said, the two making small talk as the clip was faded out.

"Yeah, she's just great," replied the other. "And the hero being saved- it's like something out of a comic book..."

Shego couldn't help the goofy smile that lit up her face.

And from that point on, everything changed.

Kim's body seemed to relax each time Shego went to see her, as if her absence created a tension that would ebb from the girl in her presence. She noticed that Kim had resumed looking, but not with eyes narrowed with suspicion or dulled with resignation, but wide deep green eyes that stole her breath. And the look in those eyes began to morph into something different, something entrancing.

A few months ago, Kim began sharing small knowing small with her each time she arrived and would draw a small dainty pout when she departed. They were smiles that were given to none of those losers that Kim seemed to take time fawning over with her friend, whom Shego now knew as Monique, or fought over with another cheerleader, known as Bonnie. Those were little quirks of the lip that were meant solely for her; small treasures storing up a wealth of emotion within her.

The girl started spending more time at home, in her room alone. At first, Shego thought it odd; the outgoing girl was always so popular and busy. But during those times, she noticed that Pumpkin would smile that secret smile and pout more often. Or she'd turn her waist a little to accentuate the flare of her hips. Or she'd lean over the bed, arching her back. At first Shego simply dismissed it as Kim being a late bloomer. Hell, her brother Hego was in his twenties and still didn't seem interested in sex. Teenaged hormones had messed the woman up pretty handily; an adrenaline junkie like the redhead would probably be the same.

But then came the hot pants. The short skirts. The low cut blouses and tunics.

_LINGERIE!!!_

Poses and dreamy stares, looking right at her, freezing her where she hid, drying up her mouth. Shego couldn't believe what she was seeing as the days progressed. It brought a blush to her face and a pulsating rush to her groin. She couldn't stop watching.

The girl then started dancing.... _dancing_! At first it was bellydancing, the girl's hips vibrating hypnotically. Then came pole dancing; Kim must've ordered it online. It came with a jaw dropping training video. Shego found her hands in stimulating places during these performances, unable to keep herself from being drawn into the girl's displays. Even the act of undressing became infused with a sensuality that hadn't been there before.

A month ago, Kim kicked it up a notch.

Shego couldn't believe her eyes as the girl began fondling herself. The girl would caress herself a little before turning in with that little smile. The green woman was glued to the sight. Each night it went longer and longer. Shego got closer and closer. She couldn't help herself. Even in the freezing cold of winter, Shego unzipped her catsuit to get at her aching erogenous zones. Kim kept going longer, until one day she went all the way. Shego couldn't get enough. She snuck as close as she dared, and as Kim finally slipped her hand underneath her panties, Shego dipped her hand into her own throbbing core. When the redhead thrust her hips at the window, her cries echoing through the panes, Shego's entire body vibrated violently as her voice echoed the girl's.

Shego slumped against the window for a moment, then thought: _Shit! I gotta get outta here!_

That was a few days ago. She'd tried to assuage her overheated libido during that time, but just the simple thought of the hero would send her mind reeling into hormonal overdrive. And now, she was outside the girl's window again.

Tonight, the girl was dress in her mission outfit coloured lingerie: plum on top, black below. Shego's eyes glazed, wondering what kind of show Princess was going to give her tonight. She just couldn't stay away. Couldn't stop watching. She was done. It was over.

Shego was addicted to Kim Possible.


	5. Heartbreaker Lyrics

**Heartbreaker Lyrics**  
**by Geoff Gill and Clint Wade**  
**Performed by Pat Benetar**

Your love is like a tidal wave, spinning over my head  
Drownin' me in your promises, better left unsaid  
You're the right kind of sinner, to release my inner fantasy  
The invincible winner, and you know that you were born to be

You're a Heartbreaker  
Dream Maker, Love Taker  
Don't you mess around with me!  
You're a Heartbreaker  
Dream Maker, Love Taker  
Don't you mess around - NO NO NO!

Your love has set my soul on fire, burnin' out of control  
You taught me the ways of desire, now its takin' its toll  
You're the right kind of sinner, to release my inner fantasy  
The invincible winner, and you know that you were born to be

You're a Heartbreaker  
Dream Maker, Love Taker  
Don't you mess around with me!  
You're a Heartbreaker  
Dream Maker, Love Taker  
Don't you mess around - NO NO NO!

You're the right kind of sinner, to release my inner fantasy  
The invincible winner, and you know that you were born to be

You're a Heartbreaker  
Dream Maker, Love Taker  
Don't you mess around with me  
You're a Heartbreaker  
Dream Maker, Love Taker  
Don't you mess around with me!  
You're a Heartbreaker  
Dream Maker, Love Taker  
Don't you mess around with me!  
You're a Heartbreaker  
Dream Maker, Love Taker  
Heartbreaker!


	6. Chapter Three: Heartbreaker

**Heartbreaker**

"Gotcha."

The redhead's smile as entrancing. It was causing her will to drain away even as the tide of something mysterious seeped into her, like a shadow seen only in peripheral vision, something ephemeral, a memory half-forgotten.

"Ki-kimmie..." Shego stuttered under the weight of those deep green eyes.

The girl towered above her. Shego could smell the scent of the girl's passion, a strange mix of strawberries and cherry wood. The peacock feather swayed slowly back and forth as if tracing the swirls of desire that seemed to pulse between the two.

"Shhhhhheeeeegggooo," Kim drew out the name. It was right, it felt right. The woman who lay bound to her bed, arch-nemesis, villain and thief, a beautiful spellbinding myth of the old earth. The sound of her name hissing through the girl's petal lips caused the green goddess to shiver.

The girl daintily perched by her hip, resting her weight on one arm, the feather still waving gently in the air. Shego's mind was awhirl. With the close warmth of the girl, so near, so close, it was hard to think, to formulate any kind of coherency, let alone will.

"Why, Shego?" The girl's dark green eyes trailed a line of intimacy along the woman's form, over her darkly painted lips, her large deep green aureoles, down past the toned belly, the flare of her hips, leaving a trail of pebbled skin where that gaze had touched. It left her swallowing, trying to wet the suddenly parched recesses of her throat.

"Tell me," Kim breathed as she began to wave the feather above the body restrained on her bed. "Tell me, Sshhheeeegooo." Almost a whisper and yet, so laden with arousal. It could not be denied, would not be denied.

"A game," Shego gasped out as the feather's passage wafted across her skin. And yet it had yet to dip upon her smooth crème de menthe skin. "Just a game, Pumpkin." The feather continued it's dousing of her curves, her eyes following its leisurely progress above her breasts, her belly, her thighs, then retracing it's way, up one arm, back down, across her upper chest just below her neck then the other arm.

"Wanted to see..." Shego stopped for a moment as the long long wispy vanes brushed lightly across a nipple, spiking a light vibration across her thoughts. For a moment, her jaw worked with no sound. "I wanted to see... how long it would take..." As the iridescent feather dipped lower, she had to force out her last few words. "For you to find me!" the words tumbled out in a rush as she fought to repress a moan.

"Oh?" the hero responded with a coquettish tilt of her head. She continued breathlessly. "Really? Not to _hurt_ me? To _harm_ me? _Bend_ me... _over_...?" Shego could not believe how erotic those purred words were. They floated over her in lazy, hypnotic swirls. At each emphasized word, the feather dipped, lightly brushing her skin, once, twice, thrice.... at the fourth touch, she could no longer restrain the groan that escaped her lips.

"No... no... Kimmie... n-not hurt..." Shego tried to clamp her lips shut to keep her runaway tongue from responding to the girl's ministrations, yet the words continued to be coaxed from her.

"Then what? What made you keep up the game? Ssshheeegooo..." The girl's feather draped across the green breasts, tickling and arousing both, awakening a rushing symphony through her body.

"I... P-princess..."

"Tell me... tell me... tell me, Ssshheeeegoo..." In all her twenty-six years, she had never heard her name spoken like a lingering caress. Even the mere sound of it issuing from the girl's lips were like gossamer kisses down the planes of her body, as if Kim was tasting her like a fine wine, rolling her identity over her palate.

"I began to w-watch you..." now that she'd begun speaking, the feather rolled along her skin, teasing, stroking. "I b-began noticing you..." the words started to come without the redhead's coaxing. Something had given way in her head; the words leaked out, a trickle at first, then a torrent, as if to make room for the arousal Kim was pouring into her.

"I was on a stealth run to the Middleton Physics Lab..." The feather began to play around her left breast, then her right, around and around, dancing around her nipples even as they contracted, harder, harder. "I saw you..." Shego hissed as the feather drew across a nipple. "And you... knew... like your aura knew mine..." The woman stopped, her breath hitching as the vaned tip brushed the other nipple.

"Started... wanted to see... if you could find me..." the feather began to drag itself along her ribs, one side, then across to the other. "I saw how... each time I showed, you knew I was there..." The plume drifted lower, along the smooth rolling muscle of her belly. "Got you worried,... got you pissed... wanted to see... how far I could push you, but you suddenly... just... gave up... you stopped looking..."

"Why? Why continue the game...? C'mon,... why?" Kim began drawing patterns up the woman's calves, beyond her knees, higher. Shego's hips jerked as the vanes stroked the inside of her thighs.

"Couldn't..." Shego gasped as the feather stroked up one leg, inside and out, then the other. "Couldn't stop! Tailed you... for months... wouldn't leave me... alone..." Shego looked up at the redhead, her eyes pleading, begging. "Thought it... dreamed it... wouldn't... leave me... Ah!" The last was torn out of her as the feather brushed up her centre, between her legs, her heaving core.

"And you saved me," the red head breathed. "Why? Why did you save me...? Shhheeego..." The feather was swirling a diminishing spiral, her loins the centre of that maelstrom, slowly, slowly, closer, closer, closer... Her passion leaking out from her. Shego's panting breath was the only sound in the room, the beating of the wings of her desire seeking release.

"Couldn't... let ... it happen..." Jade eyes lit onto deep green and a spark grew. Shego shut her eyes. Was it now? It had to be now. Would she cling to it? Protect it? In the confusion of her beating heart, a frisson vibrated through her mind and she finally, after all the years, all the yearning and the subterfuge, she, the most wanted woman in the world, let go. She shut her eyes against the truth of it. "Couldn't live... without you..."

The feather stopped. The weight lifted off the bed. The warmth receded.

_No.... no... Kimmie, please.... please.... I-I need...._ The words jumbled in her reeling mind, lodged in her throat. Her heart hammered harder now. Felt as if the light was fading. The girl leaving, getting farther. Had she lost? Was it not to be? Was she cursed, as she'd always thought?

Suddenly, the weight returned. Skin, smooth and supple rested upon her chest, arms. Close. Intimate. She opened her eyes slowly, afraid of what she might find.

Kim Possible, teenaged, globe-trotting, world-saving hero, leaning down, her arms on Shego's chest, hands on the woman's collarbones, deep green staring into her own jade eyes, filling her vision, a vision of.... what?

"Thank you..." Kim's breath whispered across Shego's lips, warm and enticing. "Thank you..., thank you..." As she continued, she left light touches of her lips on Shego's cheeks, pressing closer, more intimately, zeroing in.

"Thank you..." The tip of her nose. Shego's arms contracted, still bound.

"Thank you..." The corner of her mouth. Her stomach began to vibrate with the song Kim was murmuring.

"Thank you..." Her bottom lip. Her eyes fluttering closed.

The last "thank you" is muffled as Shego finally captured Kim's lips with her own. The kiss wasn't rough. It wasn't fierce. It wasn't eager. It wasn't even heavy.

It was intense.

Profound.

Magical.

Kim withdrew and opened her eyes, the awareness of her perky breasts pressed against fuller mounds. Shego's luxuriously eyelashed lids remained closed. Kim began trailing her lips and tongue slowly down arch of the woman's neck, her hands rising to cup the bosom that heaved beneath her weight. Shego marvelled at the teen's skin sliding along her own as the girl shifted lower, the hands kneading, caressing in powerful strokes up and down her ribs.

Shego's body arched and twisted at the sudden tingling surge that coursed through her, the delectable pooling in her lips, her chest, her most private part when the lips found a nipple. They licked, they pressed, they teased, they bit. Through the raging storm of pleasure, she was only vaguely aware of the hero's lithe body pressed against her own, a warm touch of passion trickling down her thigh, a searing heat that seemed to communicate with the other burning between her legs, twin suns revolving in harmonious gravitation.

Something hot and slick pushed up against the mound of her sex, forcing out a shuddering moan from the green woman's engorged lips.

"Did you like my little smiles, Shhheeeggoo?" The scent of Kim's voice tormented her. "They were... just for you." Shego shuddered as the redhead's body pushed up against her and Kim's sighing voice faltered.

"Did you like how I... arched my back? How I... turned my hips?" The heat of the girl's low purr prickled the skin of her chest as the hero lay her head down and flicked her agile tongue.

"How about my... hot pants, did you like... those?" Shego mind was incandescent, with a singular coruscating comprehension dawning on her consciousness, the motion and pressure of the hero feeding that understanding, feeding it, nurturing it, bringing it to a monstrous maturity that frightened and tantalized the comet enhanced beauty. "The... skirts?" She wanted to hold her princess close, closer than anyone ever before, but the restraints were driving her to the brink, to the edge of blissful insanity. Even the strands of hair that tickled her ribs tormented her sensitive skin.

Slim arms slid under Shego's, the slim hands gripping the older woman's shoulders from underneath, hooking onto her to leverage her passion even higher.

"Ah! God yes! I- Unh! Loved it!" she cried out, as if the shouted words could relieve the tension in her constrained limbs. Her body moved of its own accord, her hips moving to a rhythm all their own. Even as they thrust upward the redhead pressed downward building a tectonic pressure known since the beginning of time. She wanted to pull the restraints off and wrap the girl in an embrace, yet her mind could no longer command her body, the mental faculties having been circumvented and deflected by the rising tide of pleasure.

Shego's skin began to glow. She didn't even notice in the dim light, but the hero did. Even as she moved atop the woman, she stared in fascination as the light green skin began to shimmer. Before her very eyes, specks of light began to rise from the woman, glittering for a few seconds before fading, floating higher and higher. Even as Kim pressed against her, sheets of pleasure overlaying her mind, the glow became more and more pronounced. As the pleasure mounted, higher and higher, deeper and deeper, the glow began to pulse in time with the flex of their hips.

Soon, the red head's eyes rolled up and closed, as the pleasure began to over take her, her gasps and moans echoing, harmonizing, merging with the woman's. Around them a light green corona expanded. The glowing wisps increased in number as Shego suddenly clamped her teeth shut, her muscles pulling taught, her body straining against the hero even as the redhead gripped the woman, her hips jerking feverishly. Her gasps breathed across the woman's heaving breasts. The luminous specks began to swirl above them, faster and faster.

A whine began to emanate from Shego, a rumble deep down in her belly. Her head jerked back and forth, denying the destination even as the girl drew her toward a cataclysmic destination. A tingle, almost painful in intensity, began at the base of her spine; the sound of Kim's guttural groans as the redhead neared her orgasm pushed her over the edge.

An undulating roar ripped itself out of her even as she convulsed, the red head clutching the glowing woman, sparks soaring from their bodies. Even as the two woman shuddered in unison, the room filled with streaks of light, swirling in a lightstorm of passionate cries.

After an eternity of tremors, the light slowly flickered, dimming, then winking out, heaven leaving two sweat slicked bodies, gasping for breath. Shego felt Kim slowly turned her head, sliding her hands a top her chest. It took Shego several more minutes to recuperate.

"I... Kim..." Thoughts, images, feelings were burgeoning back into her post-orgasmic brain. Restrained tears began to leak out of her eyes.

"Shhhh..." Kim said, shifting a finger against her smeared lips. "Shhh... I wanted to... be with you. Did you know? For how long? And now... now I am." Kim's smile was small, and sweet. Shego blinked at the innocent purity of it.

"B-but... I...?" Shego's mind still swam. What was Pumpkin saying?

"Oh, I know. I tried to deny it. So ferociously wrong and sick," the words roll off the hero's tongue in a tremulous purr that spiked her heartbeat. "Dated practically everyone I could think of to take you off my mind. But it didn't matter. It didn't change. Only one thing." Kim brushed a sweat soaked lock from Shego's forehead gently, "I didn't know how you felt. But now... now I know."

"Princess, I don't know... you're still a minor, I didn't mean for this to happen," Her thoughts still seemed to be a little jumbled, like massive monoliths, tumbled about by the wash of passion along the plains of her mind.

"Shego,... I turned eighteen three days ago."

The woman's eyes narrowed as she forced her mind to work, attempting to ignore the lithe form pressed against her. Her eyes widened for a moment. "Wait, you're telling me..." she stopped, not willing to believe it. But when Kim smirked, that old curl of the lip that Shego knew so well during their long clashes across the globe, she knew.

"I _am_ a Possible," was all Kim said.

"Huh. So devious, Kimmie..." Shego said, a smile that began playing across her lips. "That's _such_ a turn on. But just one thing, Pumpkin..." Shego's two index fingers suddenly glowed brightly as she slid the flaring fingers expertly across the ropes holding the cuffs. Kim yelped as she sat up and turned, rolling the redhead to lie across green thighs. One arm gently and firmly cradled her even as the other flicked flames through the ropes restraining the woman's legs.

"Did you plan for this?" she whispered as she leaned down, the thief stealing a kiss from the hero. A long, deep, mesmerizing kiss.

"Something... to be said for ad lib," the redhead replied breathlessly.


	7. Crimson and Clover Lyrics

**Crimson and Clover**  
**by Tommy James and Peter Lucia Jr.**  
**Performed by Joan Jett and the Blackhearts**

Ah, now I don't hardly know her  
But I think I could love her  
Crimson and clover

Ah when she comes walking over  
Now Ive been waitin to show her  
Crimson and clover over and over

Yeah, my, my such a sweet thing  
I wanna do everything  
What a beautiful feeling  
Crimson and clover over and over

Crimson and clover over and over  
Crimson and clover over and over  
Crimson and clover over and over  
Crimson and clover over and over


	8. Chapter Four: Crimson and Clover

Disclaimer: Kim Possible © Disney

Crimson and Clover © Joan Jett and the Blackhearts

Any resemblance to other Disney media is simply a product of my Disney fetish.

A/N: Okay, List of Romantics, I give. The muse is just totally ripping at me about OWOA. Happy Valentines!

* * *

**Crimson and Clover**

Kim Possible was in heaven.

She was riding the euphoric waves that had started the night she had shared herself with a particular glowing special someone. It was a singular event that completely changed her world. At times, she swore that things seemed newer, the sun seemed softer, that everything had a glow to it.

The redhead took an early morning mission with her typical gusto, but accented it with a joie de vie that elicited a smile from the distraught but grateful woman who's cat she rescued from a barbed fence that was electrified by a secured car battery. Brimming with a buoyant energy, Kim decided to run the few miles to school. She passed Ron who was chugging along on his decrepit scooter with a smile and a wave.

"Hey KP, how's my best friend?" Ron called out, seeing the redhead approaching quickly.

"Fabulous Ron, I'm totally good!" she replied over her shoulder as she sped past. "See ya at school!"

Kim couldn't help grinning as she replied with an airy "Hi!" to anyone who greeted her and pulled open her locker. She gasped as she looked at the back of the door.

One of Kim's perennial mugshots had been overlaid by a photo. Secured by paper clips was a three by four coloured picture of Shego. She was propped up on her elbows, her back arched, head toward the camera. Her black silken hair was mussed, pulled around her left shoulder. She lay upon black satin sheets, the top sheet draped lazily across her bare bottom, her legs kicked up, revealing a generous swathe of green back. The woman's full bosom was literally spilling out of a small but familiar plum bra, one hand playing with the strap. It was the only article of clothing she was wearing, but it was the seductive smirk that made Kim shiver with arousal. The hero, her face suddenly a bright crimson, snatched down the photo and flipped it around. On the back was a black lip print and words that burned into Kim's already erotically charged mind.

"Couldn't help stealing a memento. Catch me later, Pumpkin." It wasn't signed.

Kim closed her eyes, taken away by remembrances of smooth skin and searing lips. She thought she could still taste the villainess's tangy perspiration around the edges of her tongue, the scent of the woman's flesh, the musk of the ebony hair.

Kim's smile slid to a stop as she realized that she was holding the rapidly warming photo against her chest. She quickly and carefully slipped it into her wallet, hoping to calm the rampant blood coursing through her now. When first bell rang, Kim slammed her locker door shut before dashing for class.

Calculus and Mr. Barkin. Kim daydreamed about Shego's generous breasts, how the woman had moaned loudly when Kim had gripped the softness firmly, rhythmically massaging a slow tempo into the skin. Her reverie was disrupted when Barkin called her to the blackboard to solve a complex equation. Only her quick mind and her study habits allowed her to get the correct answer.

Psychology and Mr. Barkin. As the tall hulking man droned on about the definition of psychosis and warned of the dangers of self-diagnosis, Kim began thinking about the extremely smooth spot behind Shego's knees. Why was it smoother than other parts of her body? How did the woman get it so smooth and keep it like that? Kim had caressed those spots, so sensitive to the older woman, marvelling at the lush and splendidly sensual feel of it. She jerked as the bell rang.

English. Thankfully, not Mr. Barkin. Having read and analysed the story weeks ago, Kim lost herself in reminiscing about that night. She wondered why she was all of a sudden constantly thinking about sex, having sex, and having it with Shego. Then she decided that she didn't care. A frightening revelation, like the time she was climbing a sheer rock face only turning her head to find a large spider just beside her supporting hand.

She would give anything to see the thief again.

Today.

Tonight.

In the cafeteria, Monique spoke, not being able to take the dreamlike state that had Kim's face flush bright red every few minutes.

"Girl, WTH is with you?" Kim's dazed look immediately snapped into focus.

"Mon'? What do you mean?" Kim's flush was a telltale sign of not speaking the truth.

"Do you even realize what you're doing?" Monique raised an eyebrow, pointing.

"Huh?" Kim looked down and saw half-finished mystery meat, with another gobbet taking a journey on her fork to her mouth. Then the taste hit her. "Oh! Eww! Gyahh!" she gagged. A wry smile accompanied the water as Monique handed a bottle to the choking girl; Kim took several gulps. Ron looked up, wiping at some mystery gravy leaking from the corner of his mouth.

"KP, if you're not going to finish that...?" Kim stared at her friend of over twelve years, nearly three-quarters of her life eyeing her half-finished meal.

"Go ahead," she sighed. "But this is one of the reasons why I don't date you any more."

"No worries for the Ronster, KP. Ever since I won the Ron Eng Half-Back Award, there has not been a shortage of ladies!" he declared, sweeping Kim's abandoned plate into his arms. Monique was not to be put off.

"GF, if I didn't know better, I'd say that you just had TGSOYL."

"Uh," Kim's eyes shifted as her mind attempted to decipher the acronym. Thank God Shego Only You Love? No, Monique never did as Yoda does. The Goddess Shego On Your Lips, no, how could she know? Thief Got Sauce On Your Lips, she wished. Why were all the things Kim could think of centred on Shego?. Wait.... The Greatest Sex of Your Life... oh crap! Kim's furious blush was all the answer the black girl needed.

"I, uh, w-what-" Kim stuttered.

"Kim. Bathroom. NOW!" The black girl stated as she stood, grabbing the redhead's hand, literally dragging her out of her chair. Other students stopped to stare curiously at the internationally renowned hero and master of sixteen martial arts being hauled off by her fashion conscious friend.

"Don't be too long," Ron called as Kim stumbled on, still firmly attached to the charging girl. "Class is in ten!"

When they passed by the girl's bathroom, Kim's mind kicked in.

"Mon', where are we going? The bathroom..." Monique stopped and sighed, then turned around.

"GF, you should know this. NO real H2H talk should ever happen in a public washroom, where anyone could come in unannounced. Now c'mon." Kim followed the girl out of the school, wondering where they were going. They stopped under the school sign.

"Monique, we're gonna be late for class..."

"No worries, Kim," Monique said as she turned around. "Now spill!"

"Here?" Kim glanced around self-consciously.

"One: No bushes for anyone to hide. Two: out in the open where we can see everything," Monique ticked off her points on one hand. "Three: can't be snuck up on or overheard. Four: we're seniors, this could be our free period." Monique crossed her arms and raised an eyebrow. "Now are you gonna talk or do I need to sauce yo' ass and ask some pointed and embarrassing questions?"

"Uh..." Behind her the school bell rang.

"Why don't you start with the lucky stiff? And I know it ain't Ron, 'cause he was still on the road. You met someone?" Kim fidgeted for a moment.

"Well, you know how I've thought I was being followed, all last year, right?" Monique replied with a nod.

"And then I got rescued by that someone." Monique nodded again.

"And that I'd been planning how I could get that someone to show?" Monique started to nod again but stopped herself.

"Say what? Kim, you don't know anything about that guy. He could be a creep or, like a mass murderer or something!"

"When I was rescued I thought I caught a glimpse of who it might be. And that's not even considering that, after a whole year of stalking, the only interaction we had was me being saved from a flaming metallic death. I thought that some trust was in order." Monique reluctantly nodded as she digested Kim's words.

"Well, okay. Huh. So that's why you've been ditching us for the last few months?" Kim looked at the ground.

"I'd say sorry, but I'm not. I do miss hanging out with you guys..."

"Hey, s'alright, GF. You've been on stalker-watch. Sooo... let me guess; you've had a breakthrough?"

"Uh," Kim blushed again. "You could say.... something like that..."

"You met?"

"Oh, yeah."

"Is he good looking?"

"Beautiful."

"Was he everything you thought he might be?"

"More! Gosh, soooo much more...."

"Does he have a brother?"

"Mon'!" Kim playfully slapped the girl on her shoulder. Monique giggled as she hugged her friend.

"I'm so glad for you, girl. Your love life hasn't been all that good." Kim pulled back from the hug, the both of them grinning. "So how was the sex?"

Kim immediately released the black girl.

"Mon'!"

"Hey, I said TGSOYL and you didn't deny." Monique's eyes widened as even Kim's hands glowed red. Monique smirked knowingly. "Oh, that good, huh?"

"Wasn't just sex," she muttered.

"What? Sorry, I didn't catch that." Kim sighed and shrugged, spreading her hands.

"It wasn't just sex. I can't say it's the greatest sex I've ever had, since I've never had any. If that's what sex is like, I think I'm hooked. It was just.... I'd never felt anything like it, all I know was it was just soooo good." Kim's face deepened to a dark red that even Monique had to admit was cute. "But there was more to it, I don't know deeper..." Monique stared at the redhead, an incredulous look on her face.

"You're,-" Monique shook her head and started again. "You're not... crushing on this guy, are you, Kim?" Kim's flushed glowing face and shifty eyes were her answer. "OMG. You are. You are! Kimberly Anne Possible, crushing on her stalker!"

"Four Brothers."

"Huh?"

"There are four brothers, but they're so not your type, Mon."

"I won't know until I try them out, and don't think you can change the subject on me," Monique huffed. "So who's the guy?"

"C'mon Mon'," Kim pleaded. Monique crossed her arms again and raised her eyebrow. The hero sighed. "It's just that it's..... complicated."

"Girl, it's gonna get out sooner or later. And who's better to protect you in the school than Ron and me? So. Someone I know?"

"Uh, yeah, er... sort of..."

"Someone from Middleton?"

"Not.... not really." A tremor of anguish speared through the girl as she realized that she had not real way of contacting Shego.

"Someone from school?"

"Uh, well briefly..."

"Wait... someone I sort of know, who was in Middleton for a while and briefly in the school..." Monique's eyes darted back and forth as she listed the info. "Hirotaka?"

"What?"

"OMG. You bagged that hottie from Japan? That's great Kim! I'm a bit jealous- okay alot, but wow. That's just.... sooo up the food chain." Monique grabbed the red-head's hands in a surfeit of emotion.

"Uh, Monique..." Kim felt a tremor of fear. She knew this was going to happen, but why so soon? Why couldn't she just enjoy the moment a little longer? "It's not Hirotaka."

"Huh? Not Hirotaka? But then who..." The black girl's mind was racing, her mind systematically comparing and discarding names. It had been her tenacity and ability to read people that had moved the girl from floor sales lackey to assistant manager at Middleton's Club Banana flagship store in a few months. She could typically take one look at a person and know exactly how to get a sale out of them. She shook her head and started again. After another five minutes, the girl's shoulders slumped in defeat. "I give, Kim; who can it be? The only person that matches what you just told me is Miss Go, and I know that can't be. C'mon, give me something more."

"It's not Miss Go."

"What I said." Kim whispered a silent prayer to the heavens and braced herself.

"It's Shego." Monique simply stared at her. For a moment, then she gave a deadpan laugh.

"Ha ha, good one there Kim. I just thought you said -"

"Shego. Yeah I did. It's who I meant." Monique froze, her mind gibbering with this news flash. Her mouth opened and closed several times. Kim looked at the girl with steady eyes. "Monique, are you.... okay?" The black girl snatched her hands back from Kim's grip and turned her back.

"Huh!" The girl grumbled. "Just play with the sista. Fine. Don't tell me who it is. I don't care."

"Monique! Seriously. I like her, maybe love her!" Kim stopped for a moment. Did she really? Monique held up a hand.

"No, oh, no, you do NOT front with me, you got that? You better check yourself and watch what comes outta your grill, girlfriend. Didn't I tell you the truth when Labron sneak attacked me and stole my womanhood? If you can't even share something as little as who's your bu, I don't know if I can call you a friend." Monique began to stalk away. Kim was watching her one and only best girl walk away from her.

In a flash, Kim's hand grabbed the girl's arm and spun her around. Monique growled, bringing her hands up in a boxer's stance, but yelped as a wallet smacked her in the face. It fell into her hands.

"WTF, girl!" Monique hollered. But Kim was just standing there, not ready to fight.

"In the wallet..." Kim said in a small voice. "I found it in my locker today." The fashionable girl flipped through the credit card holders then stopped. Her eyes suddenly widened.

"Yeah. It's Shego. Read the back." Mechanically, Monique did as she was told. Her eyes darted left to right as she read the two short lines. Then again. One more time. "And the bra? Mine."

"I-it's a fake! Like one of those Photoshopped things you can get off the... " The girl's eyes met Kim's, who stared back solemnly. "It... it's not. Is it...?"

Kim reached out to catch the girl as she staggered with a moan. "Breathe Mon'. Yeah that's it. Nice and deep. Slowly. Breathe," she said, setting the girl on the ground and rubbing her back.

"I,... uh,..." The black girl looked up at Kim, swallowed and continued, "Kim, I owe you an apology. I'm really really sorry I doubted you." Kim simply smiled back as she settled beside her friend.

"I can hardly believe it myself." The two were silent for a while, then Monique handed back the wallet.

"So you... like... her? I mean, -_**like her**_- like her?"

"Yeah," Kim said softly. "I do. I love her." Seeing her friend sad wistful face, the yearning in the girl's voice, Monique knew this was true.

"So... are you a.... Lesbian then?"

Kim sighed. "I- I don't think so. I mean, I still think some guys are hot. Shego just totally and completely blows away any competition."

"Huh, not just figuratively either."

"Yeah," Kim smiled, then hesitated, before asking, "Are you... okay, with that?" Monique turned to her friend.

"Gay or not, you're my friend. Unless YOU try to sneak attack me or something, we're still BFF." Kim sighed as a tension she hadn't realized she felt left her. Energy soared into her as she realized that she still had a friend in the girl.

"BTW, I gotta say WTG, GF," Monique offered a small smile bumping her friend with her shoulder. Her resilient mischievous personality couldn't help the next few words that broke out the giggles. "You finally bagged the bad girl."

"Mon!" But Kim giggled along. She suddenly jumped to her feet. "C'mon! Let's go around to the other entrance. We got to get to class." Monique sighed at her friend's exuberance; although it must have been emotionally draining for Kim, the mocha skinned girl needed time to process and assimilate the news.

"Yeah, let's go."

They walked into the middle of Biochemistry being taught, unsurprisingly, by Mr. Barkin.

"Possible! Davis!" he barked at them before settling into a ominously smooth tone. "I see you have no qualms about coming in late for class."

"Sorry Mr. B," Monique batted her eyes at the hulking man. "I had to.... get some... hygiene products, and Kim went with me."

"Hygiene products?" Barkin mused, slightly uncomfortable. "And you purchased them?"

"Yeah, I'm all good now. Need the receipt? I've got my soiled panties in there though..."

"Ah... that's alright, Miss Davis. Just take your seats." Barkin definitely looked uncomfortable.

Kim's ebullient mood made her impervious, shrugging off Bonnie's constant sniping, who continued her quest to wrest the position of Head Cheerleader and Most Popular Girl from Kim. Her sighs at practise drew knowing glances from the other cheerleaders. They clustered in a heavy gossip session when the girl flew out of practise. They commented on her glow, wondered about whom she was seeing, laughed when Ron's name came up.

Kim literally flew home, her mind wrestling with one thought: would she see Shego tonight? At home, Anne shook her head at her daughter's dreamy-eyed smiles when she meandered into the house, grabbed some fruit from the kitchen and headed up to her room. James wondered if he would need to prepare the new orbital module for an unplanned manned deep space flight. Jim and Tim hustled themselves into the newly renovated basement.

Kim wondered if Shego would call tonight and giggled, considering what kind of trap she should prepare for the green-skinned villain. She grinned as she began to change, this time picking her white and neon blue hunting lingerie. Over the silk undergarments, she put on her three-quarter sleeve tunic and a pair of flared corduroys.

It had been almost 48 hours since she last saw the woman, and her anxious thoughts seemed to squirrel away from her. Will she come, won't she come.... Kim's hand trembled even as she carefully applied a sparkling light blue lipstick. Suddenly, a presence wrapped warmly around her.

Kim spun toward the window, her heart trip-hammering with excitement.

Outside, Shego stood as if in mid-air, feet just below the eaves trough. She wore her catsuit, her trademark dead-sexy pose, a hand on a cocked hip, smiling smugly back at the redhead. Kim rushed to the window and pulled it open.

"How...?"

Slowly, the green-tinted woman rose. Touching her sleeve, a gunmetal grey hoverpod shimmered into view. "Hoverpod. Miss me, Princess?" Suddenly, Kim stilled, eyes downcast, her heart no longer remotely in her chest cavity, but attempting to leave her trembling body. The hero raised her eyes slowly and gazed at the woman through her lashes.

"Sheeegoo," she whispered. A dark green blush spread itself perceptively across the woman's cheeks. "I've been thinking of you all day."

"Doctor D just finished a new prototype hoverpod," the woman replied, her voice slightly huskier.

"It's... lovely..." Kim's breathy voice was magical.

"You, uh, you don't want to go for a ride, do you? We could get out of Middleton, see the world...." Shego remotely floated the hoverpod closer until she stood above the teenager. That intrigued the redhead; on missions, the world just seemed to fly by in blotches of greens, tans and greys. Ever on the move or focussed on the mission, Kim could not bring herself to pause and wonder at all the exotic locales she'd been to. And now, her arch-nemesis was offering it to her.

"Is it safe?" Sea green eyes glanced across the lit control board. Given Drakken's track record with death rays, Kim was not sure if his modifications could be trusted.

"Sure. Do you trust me?" Shego said.

"What?" she replied, suddenly focusing on Shego's full lips.

"Do you trust me?" The woman leaned close, putting a hand on a bent knee and extending the other. Kim looked directly into the woman's eyes, glowing softly in the moonlight. A slow blush crept into her cheeks.

"Yes..." she replied as she took the hand, stepped onto the hoverpod deck and slipped lightly into the cockpit. She settled into the soft plush co-pilot seat and turned to the woman, who was still standing, one foot on the deck, the other in the cockpit. The woman was watching her with a strange thought-filled expression that broke as Kim's eyes lighted upon her. She stepped down as the hoverpod hatch hissed closed. Shego swayed her hips hypnotically the short few steps to the pilot chair.

"Okay, Princess. I can show you the world."


	9. Come Away With Me Lyrics

**Come Away with Me Lyrics  
by Nora Jones  
Performed by Nora Jones**

_Come away with me in the night  
Come away with me  
And I will write you a song_

_Come away with me on a bus  
Come away where they can't tempt us  
With their lies_

_I want to walk with you  
On a cloudy day__  
In fields where the yellow grass grows knee-high  
So won't you try to come_

_Come away with me and we'll kiss  
__On a mountaintop__  
Come away with me  
And I'll never stop loving you_

_And I want to wake up with the rain  
Falling on a tin roof  
While I'm safe there in your arms  
So all I ask is for you  
To come away with me in the night  
Come away with me_


	10. Chapter Five: Come Away With Me

**Disclaimers:**

Kim Possible © Disney

Come Away With Me © Nora Jones

Written for pleasure, not for profit. Anything used from here, please credit me. I'm poor, so suing me is pointless. Um.... that's it.

A/N: Happy Valentines (was posted Valentine's Night, since I had to celebrate it on the 13th rather than the 14th, my partner working that night, dammit, and I pined for her all night, so I wrote and posted this on KPSlashhaven dot net instead), Family Day (Canadian Provincial Holiday), Flag Day (Canadian Federal, non-statutory) or President's Day (What DO Americans celebrate on that day anyway?)

* - * * - * * - * * - * * - * * - * * - * * - * * - * * - *

**Come Away with Me**

Shego was in pure hell.

She woke with a start. The dim light refracted on beaded sweat, rolling off her smooth green skin as she sat up. Her hair, a naturally glossy mane, was tangled and matted. Her chest heaved for air. The woman stayed propped on her elbows for a few more heaving breaths, then sat up, grinding the heels of her slender hands into her light green eyes.

"Fuck..." she muttered. The dream had been so vivid, so real. Fading as quickly as she woke, the details slipping away.

She remembered red hair. She remembered a sweet innocent smile, smooth strokes, a pooling of pleasure. The torturous culmination of motion never seemed to arrive, but continued to mock and frustrate her, unabated.

Butterfly winged glimpses of exquisite impalement, the red hair moving rhythmically above her, her own hips counterpoint in harmonious union... Shego shook her head violently even as the feelings of desire and dread intermingled within the confines of her head. So erotic, yet there was a sense of loss and despair, a dark nightmarish pall that could not be dispelled. In the middle of their intimacy, the redhead had disappeared, a cold shearing dislocation; she could still feel the girl's presence, but the hero was nowhere to be found, like movement caught in peripheral vision. The hurried, desperate search that had followed, the desire and dread beating heavier upon her, crushing her, drowning her. The elusive release taunting her, haunting her...

Although sick with dread, the woman's loins pulsated in angry and sullen torment, her passion soaked sheets clinging uncomfortably.

Ever since the redhead had taken her to bed, Shego had suffered recurring nightmares filled with raw animalistic imagery, claustrophobic confinement and sensual desperation. Dreams accompanied by a crushing craving and tantalizing stimulation that caused her to bolt out of sleep, hands searching for something, anything, to assuage the rampant needs ravaging her subconscious. Yet any release seemed to only further stoke the fires that raged within her.

Today, the third day, Shego decided she needed a cold shower.

She had avoided her Kim-watch the last couple of days, her mind and feelings a roiling turmoil inside her, indistinct and primal since Pumpkin "captured" and ravished her to their mutual benefit. The longer she stayed away, the stronger her subconscious rebelled.

The desires drove her to do things, stupid things. Like the picture. Shego smirked to herself, remembering how she took the picture. The bra was in the drawer of her bedside table. Sneaking into school these days was a lot different than her own generation. Metal detectors, alarms, guards with dogs and pepper spray, closed circuit cameras, security glass; it was like breaking into prison. It only took two minutes to get Kim's locker number. Shego hoped Kim was enjoying that little thing.

She staggered out of the sweat twisted silk and fumbled toward the bathroom. As the cold water sprayed down, the green-tinted woman sighed. The cool water splashed onto her face was a welcome relief from her overheated libido.

She couldn't stay away from Kim. Her thoughts were full of her. Even filing her nails, she would pause, mid-file, her eyes glazing as she replayed that night with Princess, revelling in how they had sampled each other's passion, release after release. How she had explored the soft, smooth inner thigh of the girl, nipped at the moaning teen's earlobes. How her hands had worshipped the girl's peach coloured skin in bright fervent strokes, coaxing melodious gasps from the redhead.

Shego forced herself to shower for another ten minutes.

_I want to see Princess. I need to see her._

She pulled on the tight cat suit; no underwear, since it would show.

_Not that I need it_, she smirked. _Coffee, training, then... _she couldn't repress her sigh, already feeling defeated; then more time to file her nails. More time to remember Kimmie's sweetness.

She wandered into the main chamber, where Drakken normally set up his lab in each lair. Shego had long concluded it was for maximum exposure. It was prime gloat and rant real-estate to a paid audience. The blue scientist wasn't to be seen. Shego stopped by the cafeteria and found a couple of henchmen chatting over their own morning waker-upper.

"Eddie, where's Drakken?" she asked as she filled a mug with morning mud.

"In the hangar, boss," the slightly overweight henchman replied. "Hey you in for this week's pool? Your team's on a hot streak."

"Sure. Here," she said, slapping a twenty in the man's hand before heading out. "Don't forget, training right before lunch."

"Sure, boss, we'll be there."

"Where the hell did she get that from? There's no pockets on that suit," she heard the other henchman wonder as she left.

"Lemme give you a tip, Joe, since you're new. Keep your mind off the boss. She'll break you in half and flash fry what's left..."

She entered the hangar, where the two hoverpods were parked. Drakken was tinkering with one of them, his feet sticking out from under the fuselage. Shego stopped just beside the man's boots, swung back a hand, then slapped the deck hard. She was rewarded by a loud clang that reverberated through the high ceiling. A softer, squishier clang echoed hers.

"Ow! Mrrrph! Who did that?" came his outraged voice. Drakken slid out from under the hoverpod, rubbing his reddened forehead. "I really don't appre-" he stopped seeing the woman sipping her coffee while leaning against the hoverpod. "Oh, Shego. Ha ha, very funny."

"Whatcha working on, Doc?"

"My latest scheme, Shego. It's so brilliant, no one will expect it!" Drakken sat up, a wrench in his hand.

"Uh, yeah. So, what?"

"A few modifications to the hoverpod, making it space worthy, added radiation and upgraded electro-magnetic shielding. Just finished installing the micro-oxygen tanks."

"Uh-huh. Less detail, more plan," she said, her eyes looking at the blue man as he stood up, brushing at his jacket with his free hand. His kicked puppy expression made Shego smirk. Just too easy.

"You know, if you can't perceive genius-" A sudden flash of green plasma caused Drakken to yelp as the wrench melted into a formless mass.

"Ya might wanna think very carefully what you're going to say there, Doc," she warned as the man shook his smoking gloved hand.

"That's alright by me...?" Drakken looked at the woman hopefully.

"That'll do," Shego shrugged. "So. Plan. Talk."

"Listen well then! We drag a massive electromagnetic pulse syphon into space and hold the world hostage by threatening to disrupt the Earth's magnetic field. It's brilliant!"

"And if they don't pay up? Even if they do, what's to stop them from turning on us the moment we land? And you just know they'll be sending Princess up after us_." Not to mention the fact that the world would be destroyed..._ Shego rolled her eyes. Drakken was clueless, but at least he paid well and had decent benefits, if you kept an eye on him.

"Ya know what? Lemme make it easier for you. I'll test this thing and see if we can do it. Alright?"

Drakken froze for a moment. Shego, offering to help a scheme along that involved work? Stupendous! Perhaps she's coming around, after all these years.

"Of course! That would be excellent, Shego. Let me make sure the modifications are ready and the oxygen tank topped up. Now if you'll excuse me..." The blue man's manic grin was pathetic, but Shego allowed herself another eye-roll as the blue man pushed himself back under the hoverpod.

She left the hangar. Stopped by the cafeteria to drop off her mug, then headed to her room. Within the safe confines of her privacy, something Shego regularly maintained with a variety of gadgets and personal sweeps, she sat in a luxurious divan and pulled out a handheld, a device with black leather and green tinted titanium. She turned it on and with a few button presses had a map and a flashing purple dot. The dot moved about a schematic of rooms and corridors. Shego smiled. So Princess found her little gift. It was an old trick of hers when she was still exclusively freelancing. A self pressed calling card; the lip print itself was the tracker.

She checked the time. Half an hour before training. After a few more button presses, she found what she was looking for and smiled.

_Timing's just right. Maybe Princess would like to go for a joyride..._ Shego leaned back into the divan, knowing she would be counting the seconds until she went to buzz the teen. Her Nemesis. Her Lover. Shego did something even more uncharacteristic for her.

It wasn't as if it was something she never did, rather it was the quality of it. It wasn't a smirk of arrogant self-confidence or the punch line quirk of a truly masterful zinger. It wasn't amused or long-suffering. It was uncharacteristic because it was genuine.

Shego smiled.

_Maybe a picnic. A little food a little wine... no wine, little prissy Princess probably wouldn't drink it._

The woman jumped to her feet and headed for the training hall with a blessedly unconscious bounce to her step.

* - * * - * * - * * - * * - * * - * * - * * - * * - * * - *

"Boss," Eddie groaned from the ground where the green skinned thief had thrown him. Around the cerulean mat padded training hall, ten other pairs of red-suited men practised throws. "There's something different about you." Shego's eyes flashed dangerously.

"What, I didn't throw you to the mat hard enough?"

"Uh, not that," the man said, not getting up. Shego wondered if he thought she wouldn't school him if he was already down. "You're kinda... peppy, today."

"Huh? That's a new one," she blinked.

"I mean, you're really going at it hard today," Eddie sat up, rubbing the small of his back, wondering just how the heck does one get thrown onto that part of the anatomy. Shego shook her head and checked a dim time display on the inside of her left forearm. She clapped her hands, a sharp gunshot sound that immediately caught the henchmen's attention.

"Alright, let's break for lunch. Eddie's got a sore back; Jay, you stack the mats with Mark. The rest of you, ten laps before you hit the showers. Joe, a word?"

"Yes, Boss," the men shouted before thundering over to the track that ran around the large room. The tall lanky man Shego had seen with Eddie in the cafeteria limped up.

"Yeah Boss?"

"Your endurance is a little low for your height and weight. You need to improve your cardio too," Shego said as she adjusted her gloves, her glance telling her exactly where the man's eyes were. "I want you to come up with a regimen for the next three weeks and drop it off in my box. Okay, hit the track."

"Bitch," the man muttered as he passed her.

She slammed a knee into the man's stomach before he took another step. As he bent over, gasping, she pivoted and with her back to him, hooked his near arm with her left. She rolled over the man, back to back, her legs high up in the air. She whipped her legs down. As planted her feet, she pulled her hooked arm and heaved, throwing the man into a spinning fall ten feet away. Even as he flew through the air, she sent a flaming concussive bolt after him. As he crashed to the ground, the bolt scorched the mat between his legs, missing his privates by two centimetres. The man yelped, instinctively covering himself. Eddie, standing behind Shego, sighed and rolled his eyes.

"Sorry, boss. Get rid of 'im?"

"Is he freelance or Hench Co.?"

"Hench."

"Yeah, get rid of him. What's Jack thinking, sending us guys like that?" Shego shook her head.

"Don't worry boss, I'll take care of it," Eddie cracked his knuckles and gave her his "bad-ass" grin. Shego smirked and clapped the hulking man on the shoulder. As she headed for the door, Eddie called a couple of men off the track to help.

"Jack, Dave, let's show Joe the door."

"Jeebus, Joe, you're such a moron."

"She's just trying to keep your butt from being kicked too hard by that cheerleader."

"Surprised she just didn't barbecue him like she did to Arbel, six months ago..."

By the time she stepped out the door, her mind was on something else.

She'd been training the henchmen since Drakken's failed Li'l Diablo plan. Synthodrones, no matter how dangerous, were still just bags of poorly protected goo. Robots could be hacked and destroyed without a second thought. No matter how meat-headed the henchmen were, they still bought Drakken precious time to accomplish his plans. That and Kim was getting so strong now, the men were being hurt more and more seriously, graduating from strains, bruises and headaches to dislocations, fractures and concussions. Claims were through the roof.

Shego smirked to herself as she continued down the corridor to her room. Kimmie was small, but did she pack a hell of a punch. And her technique... Shego flushed a little at the thought. Her technique was immaculate. The girl was a natural. The green of Shego's cheeks deepened as her chest felt a strange fluttery feeling.

The woman reached her room and opened the secured door. Shower.... again. She stripped off her catsuit and put it on a special hanger, then carefully hung it in a stainless steel closet. The door hissed closed and she pressed a few buttons to start the dry clean process. One of Doctor D's true-genius inventions.

She adjusted the temperature and stepped in, the scalding water spreading sweet relaxation through her. Time for a reality check. Kim was constantly on her mind. And it was a fact that Shego would be up against her when the time came for the teen to stop Drakken's latest bid for power. Could she still bring her all after the girl? A redheaded teen that had made her body ache and sing at the same time? A hero that stood for all things wholesome? The girl next door, little miss perfect, cheerleader, apple-pie?

Shego leaned against the tiles under the shower head.

_She's a hero, and I'm a villain. How could this work? It'll never work. I'm evil, and she's.... she's just so... perfect. My perfect Princess. So when she shows up with the buffoon and the naked pink thing, am I just gonna roll over and let her take me? Is she gonna just let me walk?_

_No way. She hates to lose. _Shego thought how the redhead had matched her stroke for stroke, orgasm for orgasm, that competitive spirit in the girl glowing in the midst of their lovemaking.

_And I won't lose to anybody. No. Not even her._

_Dammit. Maybe she'll come over to the dark side? Yeah, as if. She won't leave that, not even for me. Hell, it's one of the things I love about her._

Shego's eyes opened in shock.

_Oh gawd. Did I just say the "L" word?_

_Yeah, I guess I did._

_Fuck._

_Maybe she'll come away with me. I.... I gotta ask. I need to. I don't know what I'm doing, and she's so deep in me... I just can't.... I don't know. Could I really.... leave things.... like that? Could she?_

_Elope with a thief wanted in more countries than the Commonwealth?_

_Yeah, like that'd happen._

Shego shut off the water and stepped out of the shower. She patted herself dry, then put on her moisturizer. She wrapped a soft black terry-cloth towel around her torso and sat down with a pumice stone for the soles of her feet. That finished, she flipped her sodden hair over one shoulder and began to run her softly glowing hands through them, using her plasma to dry the hair. Periodically she would alternate shoulders.

Her hair was her pride and joy, something she'd been growing out since she was four. Before her powers, it took over three hours to dry the three and a half feet of hair. Now, it took about thirty minutes. And she took very good care of it. Unfortunately, she'd had to cut it after rescuing the teen, evening it out after the tumbling vehicle had sheared inches off the back; that was always a bitch. With strands stronger than many metals, Shego had to use her plasma to crop it herself.

Kim had been mesmerized by the falling dark waves. She had run her hands through it again and again, prompting the woman to try something she'd only read about. She'd taken the curtain of her soft ebony hair, laid it upon the hero and tantalizingly brushed it across the teen's heated skin. The girl had arched and gasped under the glossy black swathes, her eyes wide with delighted disbelief, dark and deep with passion. On the third time, the hero had twitched and writhed in the throes of a powerful release. Shego's smile turned into a frown as her overactive mind returned to a particular girl that just wouldn't leave her alone.

Shego had built her reputation job by job, task by task. She'd made special pains to do fantastical thefts that left the local authorities scratching their heads. Even after she'd stopped leaving calling cards, unsolved and brilliant thefts were always shoved in a folder five inches thick in the Interpol headquarters under the Black Lipstick Thief File. She had spent countless hours training, learning, perfecting her skills. Could she leave all that?

Shego shook her head as she walked out and checked the clock. If she left now, she'd have plenty of time to pick up the necessary items for tonight's excursion. The rush of thoughts and emotions cleared her mind of her doubts, leaving only a single thought.

_I'm going to see her._


	11. A Whole New World Lyrics

**A Whole New World Lyrics**  
**by Alan Menken and Tim Rice**  
**Performed by Brad Kane and Lea Salonga**

I can show you the world  
Shining, shimmering, splendid  
Tell me, princess, now when did  
You last let your heart decide?

I can open your eyes  
Take you wonder by wonder  
Over, sideways and under  
On a magic carpet ride

A whole new world  
A new fantastic point of view  
No one to tell us no  
Or where to go  
Or say we're only dreaming

A whole new world  
A dazzling place I never knew  
But when I'm way up here  
It's crystal clear  
That now I'm in a whole new world with you (Now I'm in a whole new world with you)

Unbelievable sights  
Indescribable feeling  
Soaring, tumbling, freewheeling  
Through an endless diamond sky

A whole new world (Don't you dare close your eyes)  
A hundred thousand things to see (Hold your breath - it gets better)  
I'm like a shooting star  
I've come so far  
I can't go back to where I used to be

A whole new world (Every turn a surprise)  
With new horizons to pursue (Every moment gets better)  
I'll chase them anywhere  
There's time to spare  
Let me share this whole new world with you

A whole new world  
That's where we'll be  
A thrilling chase  
A wondrous place  
For you and me


	12. Chapter Six: A Whole New World

Disclaimer:  
Kim Possible © Disney  
Alladin © Disney

A/N: What else could I use since the end of chapter eight? Here's to magic carpet rides!

* * *

**A Whole New World**

"I thought you meant something different when you said you'd show me the world," Kim remarked as the hoverpod rose higher and higher.

"What, like show you the Pyramids of Giza or the Acropolis? The laws of physics are meaningless in a cartoon movie, Kimmie."

The girl leaned against the cockpit bubble, gazing down at the dark side of the earth. Outside, the air grew to a thin light blue, then began to deepen quickly. Features of the planet beneath them began to resolve themselves from indistinct greyish greens and bluish-grey blurs to solid coastlines. Below floated an orb of brilliant blue, rich dark greens and patterns of grey, pristine white, brown and yellow; looking down at the Earth like this took Kim's breath away, and made her slightly pensive. She thought she could pick out the lights of major European cities as they flew through the Mesosphere.

"This is what I fight for. It's this, and it's her," she whispered to herself. "I'll keep you all safe. I promise." Shego pretended not to have heard over the soft hissing of the oxygen converter, covering the plummet of her heart. How could she ask the girl to leave anything behind now?

"How high are we going?" Kim wondered out loud.

"Hold on to your panties, Pumpkin. We'll reach entertainment altitude soon enough. Just let me put on the ACDC."

"Two things. ACDC?" she asked as Shego flicked on the radiation and electromagnetic shielding and the cockpit dome polarizer.

"Automated Collision Detection Control. For space debris. What's the other thing?" Autopilot, flick. ACDC, flick.

"I'm not wearing any."

"Huh? Wearing any wha-" Shego stopped, realizing the subject of the red-head's blithe admission. A sudden desire to tear the girl's clothes off speared through her. The thief took a shuddering breath and released her grip from the control stick. She turned her surprised eyes on the girl, whose furious blush was testament to the truth of her last statement. Shego's own face turned a deeper verdant hue.

"Oh, Sheeego, you blush so beautifully," Kim giggled.

The woman stood up, disturbed at how easily the teen could get to her now, disrupt her calm. She walked to the back of the pod and opened a compartment.

"Here, Pumpkin, spread this behind the chairs," she said as she tossed a forest green blanket. Kim caught the covering and began unrolling it while the green tinted thief pulled out a hot flask, two plastic mugs and a flat, pale green box. The girl lay the blanket down and then plopped herself on top with a wide expectant grin. Kim just couldn't believe that she had slipped out from home like this, without her Kimmunicator, without telling her parents or Wade or even Ron. She was here with Shego, and that was all that mattered.

The thief sat down, carefully balancing the box.

"What's in the box?" Kim asked.

"Surprise. Cocoa-moo?" Shego put down the box and mugs and unscrewed the flask top.

"Please and thank you. So what's in the box?" Kim asked, brightly. She just really, really wanted to know.

"Cocoa-moo first," was the reply. Kim pouted a bit, but the woman was being so great, she decided to save the rest of her arsenal for later. The woman passed the redhead a mug of steaming hot chocolate, which was accepted with a murmur of thanks.

"Omigawd, Shego, this is sooo good..." Kim's eyes were wide at the taste of the rich bittersweet liquid.

"Made it myself. Cream's from Bavaria, bit of truffle from France. Chocolate's from a small farmer's union from Côte d'Ivoire. Fair trade, too," Shego rambled while she poured her own mug. When she recapped the flask and turned to the redhead, she found the girl staring at her mischievously over the mug, gazing at her through lashes. Shego's heart jumped at the unexpectedly enticing sight.

"What?" she said, flustered.

"This is a side of you I never expected to see. I'm so glad you were my first." Shego nearly spewed hot chocolate all over the blanket, but with incredible force of will, forced it down and coughed a bit instead.

"What?" the woman croaked, a deep green flush on her face.

"I mean my first... everything," Kim went on, her own blush dusting her cheeks. "You know so much about, I don't know,... things. You've travelled the world; not just gone places, like me, but enjoyed it. You've probably had other, better lovers. You know so much about life and stuff... I'm really happy that you're willing to share it with a small town girl like me."

Shego was dumbfounded, flattered and amazed. She knew that she wasn't just any old chip off of any block, but to hear the hero say it out loud, so earnestly was... mind-boggling.

"So... the box?" Kim asked, a plaintive look on her face. Shego simply nodded, still digesting the girl's last few sentences. "Spankin'!"

With a wide grin, which to Shego was a gift in and of itself, the girl scooted forward, plunking down on her knees, legs akimbo, and lifted the box. The flat, dusty green box had a large sticker holding it closed, the word "Butter" printed on it in a flowing cursive script. Shego reached over and with a quick smooth motion cut through the sticker with a single index claw. Kim looked up at the woman, her eager smile all the more adorable. The thief simply nodded again. Kim lifted the lid and gasped.

Nestled inside were six cupcakes; dark brown foundations topped with fantastical swirls of red, brown and green, each with a different garnish.

"My favourite bakery. Switzerland can have their chocolates, France their haute cuisine, Asia their exotic appetites. For me, this is a little taste of heaven. You can find it in Vancouver, Canada, on Dunbar Street. Best cupcakes in the world." Kim stared at the tiny clouds of buttered cream topping as Shego smirked. "If you thought Drakken's muffins were good, these cupcakes, Cupcake, are to die for. The flavours are," she continued, pointing to each as she went, "peanut butter on chocolate, pistachio on chocolate, and one of my personal favourites, raspberry on chocolate." Shego stopped as the girl looked up, the girl's eyes wide with anticipation. Shego could almost imagine the girl wiping drool from her chin; the smell of the tiny confections was getting even to her. Kim seemed to be unable to put down the box, now that it was in her hands.

"Can, can I...?" The girl's sea green eyes begged. Shego chuckled, a light, husky sound.

"Here, Pumpkin, let me. Which would you like first?" The girl stared, licking her lips.

"Pistachio. Then raspberry. Then peanut butter!"

"Well, okay. But let's see if you make it that far." Shego carefully extracted the cupcake. Small slivers of pistachio crowned the green swirled cream. She slowly peeled down a side of paper, a little at a time. Kim was practically bug-eyed and drooling by the time she had exposed half of the tiny cake.

"Sheeeegooo!" Kim whined slightly, her eyes locked on the thief's hands.

"Open wide, Princess," Shego purred as she brought the cake to the girl's lips. Kim slowly bit down into the light, rich cream, into the moist chocolate cake. Her eyes fluttered closed.

A long, guttural groan escaped the girl as she chewed. Shego smiled at the hero's delighted response. Kim swallowed slowly. The woman took a small bite from the same cupcake and joined the girl in closed-eye silence. For a moment, they could only hear each other's deep breathing as they contemplated the sensations rolling over their palates.

"Oh, Sheeegoo... that is just.... it really is..."

"Think you can make it to peanut butter?" The girl suddenly looked down and gave Shego a shy look that simply took the woman's breath away.

"More?" Kim said in a little girl voice that caused a frisson of arousal to coalesce in her lover. Shego wordlessly brought the cake up to the girl's mouth. A few more shared bites and the pistachio was gone. Shego lifted out the reddish cupcake.

"This one's one of my favourites," Shego said as she held the cupcake for the girl to eat. "What do you think?"

"Oh,... mmmph,... it's sooo gooood...." The thief lifted Kim's cocoa-moo and brought it to the girl's lips. The girl sipped daintily. Shego glanced at her left wrist, noting the time. She took the box from the swooning teen and placed the cupcake in the girl's hand.

"Grand finale's coming up, Princess. Finish your cocoa-moo," she said as she stowed the box, then sauntered to the control panel. Kim took another bite of the cupcake, small crumbs sprinkling her tunic as she fumbled with the paper. She chased the rich cake down with the rest of her cocoa-moo.

"Remember the ending of that carpet ride in that cartoon movie?" Shego asked as she moved to another control panel. After checking a few displays and flicking of switches, she powered down the internal lights. The hoverpod was suddenly plunged into a majestic darkness, with only the diffused sunlight from the Earth's atmosphere casting a soft glow into the cockpit. The hoverpod slowly slipped into world's shadow. Kim popped the last morsel of raspberry cupcake into her mouth.

"Uh,... wait... Fireworks! At the Forbidden Palace." Shego settled beside the teen, a smile lighting her dark lips. The teen wondered just what Shego had planned as she carefully picked the crumbs off her tunic.

"Right in one." Shego turned away from Kim, retrieved the flask, stowing it away safely.

"Oh Sheeegoo..." The dark haired woman froze as she felt the redhead lean into her back. The girl's perky chest pressing against her. She felt light-headed as the blood gravitated quickly to sensitive regions on her body. Two slim arms encircled her waist and suddenly, Shego felt things she hadn't realized she'd missed.

Cherished.

Safe.

Loved.

_Maybe we can make this work. Please let it work._

Kim gave a languorous sigh as she held the woman from behind.

Suddenly, a shadow moved at the edge of her vision. Kim whipped her head around, releasing the woman and immediately jumped up into an aggressive stance, but saw nothing. Another motion, the other way. Kim whirled, but again saw nothing but the insides of the cockpit.

"Relax, Pumpkin, the show's just starting." Shego said, sitting on the blanket and pointing into the dark expanse before them.

"What...?" Kim stopped as she saw strange lights playing across the villainess's face. She could see that the woman was barely containing her excitement and turned to look out of the clear cockpit dome. The hero gasped for the second time that night.

Sheets of luminescence glittered around them, mellifluous light that swirled and waved. Soothing hues, orange, violet, green and yellow fell around them, shimmering curtains of cosmic ether bathed the hoverpod.

"Oh my God, Shego,..." Kim was wide-eyed. "It's beautiful..." Luminous curtains of light rushed past, fading, reforming, shifting and fading once more. Profound patterns passed over them, through them, reaching as if into eternity. The red-head moved slowly to the transparent dome and put her hand on the cool, curved surface. She stared up in wonder as light rained down in undulating tides.

"Yeah," came Shego's dreamy voice. She stared up at the teen. For the first time, Shego was conflictedly grateful for her angst filled life that had brought her to this place. It was a jarring, sudden and embarrassing revelation, but she could feel the truth of the thought down to her very core.

"Is it...?" Kim spoke, soft, breathless, awed by the unadulterated display before her.

"Aurora Borealis. The Northern Lights." Shego's voice was hushed as well before the enormous natural beauty that danced around them. "I... I really wanted to show this to you, Kim."

Kim turned to the woman, who started and flushed a darker green, caught looking at the teen. There was a light sparkle at the corners of the girl's eyes.

In an instant, Kim's lithe body crashed into the woman, sprawling her upon the comforter.

"Gah!" Shego gasped as the young body lay across hers. Kim held tightly to the woman.

"Princess..." Shego was once again at a loss at what to do with the girl. She stroked the girl's hair. "C'mon Pumpkin, you're missing the show." Kim gave the woman one last squeeze before inching up and turning to lay her head in the crook of the villainess's arm, pressing the length of her against the catsuit-covered body. Shego, in turn, wrapped her arms around the lithe young girl. They stared up at the enchanting cascade of light, each of them deep in their thoughts. Thoughts that moved in fluid eddies, unspoken, pregnant with momentum.

_I can't believe she's here, with me. I can't believe this feels so good. I can't believe what I'm doing, mooning over this slip of a girl, this goody-goody._

_She's shared so much of herself with me tonight. Things that are important to her. I'm glad I'm here. I'm happy she's with me._

_She's so good, and I'm.... evil._

_She's a villain, I'm a hero._

_I can't give that up... But I can't give her up either._

_She's just like me, but on the other side... my dark reflection._

_Maybe... I can have... both?_

Quietly, they lay, listening to the other's soft, rhythmic breathing. The lights played on, floes of luminous energy, slipping across the planes of the Earth's magnetism.

"Shego..." Kim whispered finally.

"Yeah?" was the equally soft reply. The girl turned, propping herself up on her elbows. She looked into the woman's eyes, those hypnotic, glowing orbs, and swallowed nervously. Shego looked up at her, a quizzical lilt of a smile on her dark lips. Blood rumbled in heavy waves through the hero, her heart beating a rapid staccato of anxiety and passion. A soaring, unfamiliar melody, not heard by her before, yet she now knew she would follow anywhere.

Everywhere.

Forever.

Kim licked her lips and took a deep breath.

"I love you."

Shego felt as if her world had suddenly been pulled askew. A tremendous spasm of heat roared through her body as the words flared across her consciousness. She felt dislocated, disconnected.

_She... __**loves**__ me? __**She**__ ... loves... me... She __**loves**__.... me,_ the green-tinted woman's mind babbled. Tears appeared in the woman's eyes.

"P-princess,..." Shego whispered before Kim lunged forward. The force of passion that met in their lips prevented any further thought. Such a minuscule connection, less than half a percentile of the human skin. It was a magnificently condensed microcosm of desire.

Kim's tongue flicked out, teasing nascent swirls of elation against Shego's dark lips. As the solar winds blew across the hoverpod, illuminating celestial patterns on their bodies, Kim followed their passing with soft kisses down the woman's slender neck. Slim peach coloured fingers depressed the button on the catsuit's collar. The fabric whispered apart, a schism opening along the seam of the alternating green and black panels. The sections fell away, exposing the light green torso to the hero's fervent touch.

Shego shivered as Kim nipped at her earlobe and blew lightly into it, sending a thrill down her spine. The insistent force of the girl's tactile rumination drew the opened suit down, revealing smooth clavicles and slender shoulders. Fingers pursued the newly unearthed contours, soft lips on bare collarbone. Shego whimpered at the intimate contact even as it pooled a single-minded determination deep within Kim, a filling of erotic sensations, driving the teen on. She traced the lines of light and shadow along the woman's neck and shoulders, the skin pebbling at the insistence of her touch.

Kim slowly drew the catsuit fabric down, crumpling the suit at the green woman's waist, trapping the thief's hands in the folded sleeves. The teen began to chase the formless patterns across the expanse of Shego's upper breasts. A searing heat began to pulse in the woman, arching her back mindlessly against the massed weight of the girl's hands. The girl was instilling a demanding momentum that could not, would not be ignored or diverted. It would not be deflected from its foregone conclusion.

The hero began trailing her full lush hair along the taut green skin, sending a shower of shocks through the thief. Each strand trailed a seductive symphony across her, building to a crescendo of pleasure that simmered. Shego bit her lower lip, as if such an act could contain the marvellous phenomenon screaming through her.

While the woman was so distracted, Kim stripped off her tunic in a single smooth motion and unhooked her blue trimmed white bra. Goosebumps appeared instantly in the cool air. She lay herself directly on top of the half-naked thief, her pert breasts pressing hard against fuller mounds, spiking the woman's hurricane spiral of tightly wound excitement by several magnitudes.

That unconscious glow that occurred the first time the two had made love began to emanate from the woman once again. However, the motes of light streaked directly out of Shego instead of swirling. Kim, not caught in the throes of ecstasy as before watched in fascination as the rhythmic pressure of their breasts seemed to accelerate the number of sparks. Where sparks penetrated the red-head, light warm ripples of pleasure surfaced.

Long restrained moans began to escape from Shego as the waves of sensation erupted into runaway reactions that pulled the thief's body taut. Kim's palms drove meteoric waves along the woman's ribs and flanks. Mind too numbed by wonder to free her hands, the green-tinted villainess wrapped her long legs around the teen, her hips flexing frantically. Yet the girl refused to allow any stimulation to that area, arching her body away slightly, pulling away to bring her hands to continue the sublime compelling touch to Shego's heaving breasts.

"Oh, Oh gawd... Kim! I... I... please!" Shego pleaded through gritted teeth. Kim's lips quirked in triumph, before lowering her lips directly on Shego's left nipple. The woman's resolve collapsed, releasing the accumulated sensual gravity in a cascading seductive discharge.

Shego's guttural roar reverberated in the small cockpit, the shimmering green sparks emerging from the hoverpod in an ever expanding sphere of green light that becalmed the melodious symphony of light for an instant. Her body arched, trembled, her toes curled as the shockwave of her release spread from her innermost self to the tips of her feet, fingers, hair.

Slowly, she returned, the hero's touch no longer insistent, but soothing. It was much longer before coherent thought was possible for the green skinned woman. All the while, the young girl who had orchestrated such a searing eruption smiled down at the remnants of her handiwork. Shego realized the girl had not even touched her most intimate part, and yet had just treated her to one of the most mind blowing orgasms of her life. The comet powered beauty shivered at the thought of what the girl might be able to do if that happened tonight.

"Kim," Shego's voice was rough from her prolonged cries.

"Yes, my love?"

"Do me a favour. See that round green button on the panel to the left of the pilot chair?" Kim's brow furrowed for a moment, wondering what the woman was going on about at a time like this. She twisted slightly to look.

"Yeah."

"Be a good girl and turn it off." Kim, her own loins pulsating with aching desire, mentally shrugged before walking over to the panel and pressing the button.

Immediately, her feet lifted off the hoverpod floor, her hair flying free. Kim grabbed the back of the pilot chair.

_Zero gravity?_ Kim was about to turn around when a very warm body, still slick with perspiration, pressed itself against her. A very warm, naked body.

_When did she...?_

"Bit over dressed, aren't you, Princess?" Deft hands settled on the button of her corduroys, even as the woman's soft skin leaned into her back. "Just hold tight and let me do the work." The thief's breath whispered across her shoulder blades. Those hands, those smooth firm hands lifted her legs, leaving Kim floating parallel to the ground

"Shego, the gravity...?" Warm air blew lightly into her ear, causing a tremolo to scurry up her spine. She could feel the smirk on her skin. The quick deft hands captured the girl's long bangs and threaded he hair into a slipknot.

"We're too low for real zero g, Pumpkin, but the hoverpod's equipped with a gravity field... which you just reversed, see?" Like a sublime mermaid, Shego glided before her, her long black hair trailing behind, also tied in a quick knot. Her long slim hand pointed to the button, which was now a soft flashing red. She rotated and placed her shapely feet against the back of the chair. Kim marvelled at the sight of those fine digits.

"Hold tight, Princess, or we'll bounce all over," the woman's wicked grin elicited a whimper from the red-head as the claws orchestrated light arpeggios of sensation along the length of the girl's sides, hooked into the unbuttoned pants and pushed. The woman's feet braced against the chair; Kim could see the delicate muscle definition on the comet powered beauty's calves. The cool air prickled her legs as her pants were slowly, lovingly removed. With a skilled motion, Shego rotated again and gave the redhead a long, amorous kiss. When the raven-haired woman drew back, Kim's rocketing pulse and heaving chest made her smirk. She held the red-head close, leisurely pressing the length of her body against the red-head. A deep flush rose in the girl.

_Day-yum, she really does blush everywhere._ The last time the woman had made love to the girl, it had been a night of furious passion. This time, Shego was going to take her time exploring the hero's body, making sure to place her mark on every inch of the girl. She noted the girl's choice of colours with a smile.

"Eyes on the prize, Cupcake," she breathed into Kim's ear.

"What-"

Kim gasped as the woman rotated again, sliding her hair along her body, each strand an instrument of sensual desire; the woman rotated around the hero. She could feel the heady rush of blood between her legs. Shego continued to orbit as the girl's breathless gasping filled the hoverpod. Once... twice... On the third, she pressed herself tightly against Kim's smooth back, her round breasts pressing into the girl's skin. Her hands reached around, cupped each pert mound and began a rhythmic squeezing. Kim moaned at the instant passionate crescendo. The thief controlled the tempo of her ascent. On and on, the woman drew out more and more sounds from her peach lips, kneading, pinching, claws scoring lightly along her flushed body.

One hand began to sear a new line of sensation down her ribs, down past her trembling belly. It traced around her belly button for a moment, then continued its journey down past the flat of her lower abdomen, into the rough private recesses of her.

Lulled into an erotic daze, the hero's legs parted of their own accord. Shego's claws slid around the ridge of the girl's hip, then down to the smooth inner thigh. She snapped the electric blue garter; the hero gasped at the playful stinging pain. Kim felt as if she was flying free, through space and time, the bright blaze of her heart, her mind, throbbing in concert with Shego's. There was no room for thought in the maelstrom that spun within her.

Down one side, then the other, Shego rubbed the pads of her fingers in long, lingering strokes, ghosting by the girl's throbbing core, where she could feel a culminating lubrication, pearls of essence that began to float free. Kim twisted in delicious torment as her excitement swelled painfully at the woman's coaxing, her body complying with every bidding.

When Shego's hand finally slid along the centre, slick with ecstasy, Kim gasped as a new harmony of arousal was added to the swirling aria. Claws studiously avoided contact with the most sensitive nub as she massaged the swelling labia.

Kim felt as if her head was going to explode. A wonderful, tremendous tingle was running through her. She laboured for breath, gasping out her affection, short and sweet. It took her a moment to comprehend that the woman's lingers had paused, spreading her wide, the cool air adding to the teen's moans.

What is she-, Kim wondered, frantic, then suddenly realized the woman was asking for permission. Even during their first session, Shego had not entered her body, except when they kissed. Lips, tongue, touch had been withheld from those intimate recesses.

"Yes, Shego, yes!" Kim groaned out. Slowly, she felt something enter her, causing the glowing embers of her to flare into a paroxysm of pleasure. Her entire body trembled as a clawed finger inserted itself within her.

_She's in me, she's gone inside me, Shego's inside me,_ Kim mindlessly revelled.

Shego began a very detailed, minute exploration of Kim, her finger searching little by little the girl's velvet depths. Back and forth she swept the pad of her finger, careful with her trimmed and buffed claw. When she found it, Shego smirked. It was a small protruding patch, slightly rough. She rubbed gently.

Kim's hips bucked suddenly as she released a scream. Shego's grin was positively wicked as she slowly pulse charged her finger with her glow. The girl began to twist and writhe, moaning heavily as the pressure mounted.

"She-shego, I have to, I-"

"Shhhhh.... it's okay Princess, I know. Just do it... C'mon..."

"B-but, I really need to,... Oh gawd! I gotta-!"

"It's alright, it's okay. Just let it go. Do it for me, Kimmie, just let go... you can do it." The woman's sultry voice drove her arousal higher.

"No... no... it's... agh.... gnnnnng..." Kim clamped her determination down. The pressure building was weird, it was strange. She felt the urge to urinate. She was embarrassed. No, she was mortified. In the middle of the act of lovemaking, and she needed to go. And here was Shego, telling her to just do it! She held on for all she was worth. It felt way too good to stop. She couldn't stop.

"C'mon Pimpkin... it's just me... c'mon Kimmie, I really want to see it, do it."

Kim could only reply with a tight, breathless whine. With that Shego sent a very slight electrical charge into the now bulbous nodule that she was stimulating. At the same time, she rubbed her thumb along the hero's clitoris.

"Come for me, Princess!"

Kim shrieked as a opalescent stream exploded from between her legs. She couldn't help it. Her thoughts, her embarrassment were wiped away as the pleasure that had built to a crescendo explosively released itself, a tempest of bliss. She bucked, writhing as her passion shot out of her, a fine diamond mist in zero gravity. It seemed to go on and on, Shego's fingers teasing her to greater, longer heights. Through it all, Shego held the undulating girl in a tight, intimate embrace. Kim thought she would die from pleasure.

Eventually, Kim quieted. Shego slowly pried the hero's cramped hands from the pilot chair and spun her around to float face up, looking out of the cockpit dome.

"Welcome back, Princess," Shego grinned.

"I-, w-what... d-did I...?" Kim stammered, her embarrassed blush making the woman chuckle.

"Relax, Kim. I found your 'g-spot'. It's not urine or anything. It's female ejaculation." Shego stroked the girl, trying to calm her.

"Wow. I just.... wow. Really?" Kim wrapped her arms around the woman. Outside, the magnetic illumination continued its cosmic dance. "I thought I was going to die!"

"I'm sure. It's kinda whitish, see?" Shego held up her finger, which was covered with a pearly film. "Every woman can do it." She paused, looking at the back of the cockpit. "Damn, Cupcake, it's like the fuckin' Milky Way! I'm gonna need a mop later." Kim, still flushed and panting from her release, blushed a deeper red. Shego smirked.

"Well, I promised you fireworks, didn't I?"


	13. Bizarre Love Triangle Lyrics

**Bizarre Love Triangle**  
**by Bernard Sumner, Peter Hook, Stephen Morris, and Gillian Gilbert**  
**Performed by Nouvelle Vague**

Every time I think of you  
I got a shot right through with a bolt of blue  
It's no problem of mine  
And it's a problem I find  
Living a life that I can't leave behind

There's no sense in telling me  
The wisdom of a fool won't set you free  
But that's the way that it goes  
And that's what nobody knows  
Well, every day my confusion grows

Every time I see you falling  
I get down on my knees and pray  
I'm waiting for that final moment  
You'll say the word that I can't say

I feel fine and I feel good  
I feel like I never should  
Whatever I get this way  
I just don't know what to say  
Why can't we be like we were yesterday

I'm not sure what this could mean  
(Every time I see you falling)  
I don't think you show me what you seem  
(I get down on my knees and pray)  
I do admit to myself that if I hurt someone else  
(I'm waiting for that final moment)  
You'll never see like it was meant to be  
(You'll say those things that I won't show)

Every time I see you falling  
I get down on my knees and pray  
I'm waiting for that final moment  
You'll say the words that I can't say

Every time I see you falling  
(I feel fine and I feel good)  
I get down on my knees and pray  
(I feel like I never should)  
I'm waiting for that final moment  
(Whatever I get this way I just don't know what to say)  
You'll say the words that I can't say, I can't say  
(Why can't we be like we were yesterday)

I feel fine and I feel good  
(Every time I see you falling)  
I feel like I never should  
(I get down on my knees and pray, and pray)  
I will say what you say  
(I'm waiting for that final moment)  
Why can't we be like we were yesterday  
(You'll say the words that I can't say)

You'll say the words that I can't say  
You'll say the words that I can't say  
You'll say the words that I can't say  
You'll say the words that I can't say


	14. Chapter Seven: Bizarre Love Triangle

Disclaimer:  
Kim Possible © Disney  
Bizarre Love Triangle © New Order  
Bizarre Love Triangle © Nouvelle Vague

A/N: Here is the long awaited Chapter Seven! Not as passionate as some chapters... lots of development.

* ~ * * ~ * * ~ * * ~ * * ~ * * ~ * * ~ * * ~ * * ~ * * ~ * * ~ * * ~ *

**Bizarre Love Triangle**

"Goodnight, my beautiful thief," Kim said as she stepped on the thatch outside her window. Shego floated the hoverpod lower, so that they were close. Kim could not resist, her eyes zeroed in on her target.

"Sleep well, Prin-" Shego's glowing eyes widened as the red-head lunged forward capturing black lips with her own. Kim was sure that she could feel the mystical communication between their two beating hearts.

_So soft..._

Finally, Kim broke the delicious connection. Shego opened her eyes slowly, her gaze unfocused. The girl opened her window, pushed aside the lowered curtain and slipped into her room silently. She paused, giving the dazed woman one last alluring look before letting the drapery fall closed behind her. A nice hot shower and then bed... she hummed a light merry tune on her way to her en suite bathroom.

"Kimberly Anne Possible. You are in big trouble," said a firm male voice as the lights flicked on.

Kim froze. Her heart trip-hammered with dread. She turned slowly, a sick pallor on her face. Yet when she turned around, there was nothing.

"D-dad?" Kim turned around again. "Dad?"

_Okay.... too much sex can make you hallucinate..._ Kim thought.

"Over here young lady," her mother's stern voice sounded behind her. Kim swallowed and turned, only to see the Kimmunicator, its minute extensible claws propping up the tiny device on her bedside table. On the miniature screen was her mother... but in Wade's room? Kim dashed over to the machine and picked it up.

"Okay... what's going on here?... Wade." Anne's throaty chuckle came out of the tiny blue apparatus.

"Right in one, Kim," her mother's voice distorted along with her image to reveal the brown skinned youth.

"Wade, why are you disguising yourself as my parents?" Kim's confusion was only amplified when she found herself speaking from the Kimmunicator.

"Because, silly, Ron and I had to cover for you while you were off having wild lesbian sex with Shego," the Kim on the small screen teased. Kim felt as if her head would explode from the sudden rush of blood.

"I,... wh-what..?" Kim squeaked, clutching at the device.

"I'm just kidding, Kim! Look, Ron called looking for you and found you weren't home. Your parents were getting all cranked so he made up a story about you probably off to see him about a small emergency with Hana and said he'd get you to call when you got there." Kim blinked. "Then he beeped me. He was worried you might have been kidnapped or something, or that Dementor had connected his transportulator to some sort of beam or something, like Drakken did with the PDVI."

"Transportulator?" The screen Kim shrugged and gave an eye roll.

"That thing that Drakken tried to get you to steal from Dementor. Anyway, I ran the security feed in your house backwards and saw you... uh, getting into Shego's hoverpod." Screen Kim looked a bit disturbed by that and crossed her arms. "Your parents beeped the Kimmunicator ten minutes later, asking why you hadn't told them why you'd left without a word, or to tell them where you were. I used this tweaked version of Drakken's cyber-clone and pretended to be you, at Ron's house while Ron and Hana made noise over Ron's Ronuminator." Kim's heart fluttered suddenly.

"I was... we were just.... I mean," Kim's mind simply wouldn't stop whirling.

"I'm operating on a need to know basis here, Kim. You don't need to tell me anything, unless you think I need to know," screen Kim put up a hand.

"I-,... thanks Wade. And as cool as it is talking to myself, could I talk to Wade now?" Her image on the screen wavered to reveal the portly black boy sitting at his terminal. Kim paused a moment before asking what was really on her mind.

"Uh,... you didn't... tell Ron why I wasn't at home, did you?"

"Look, Kim. I'll be 15 this year and I already have four Doctorates. "

"Four? You already got the one on Cryptography? Spankin'!"

"Thanks, and no changing the subject. What I'm getting at is I'm not slow. I know something's up with you and Shego. I think you're nuts; but I trust you. If you haven't told Ron yet, it's not my place to do it. But a word of advice: do it soon."

"This coming from someone who's version of love was built into a raygun?" Kim teased.

"I was young and desperate. I mean really what does a twelve year old genius know about romance except the biological response? Besides, science can solve a lot of things," Wade smirked, then turned serious. "But not human foibles. So. Ron?" He raise an eyebrow.

"I know." Kim looked at the image of her genius friend of 4 years. When Wade had contacted her, via email on her babysitting site, she had thought it was a joke. But as she chatted with him, his frustrations with the laws that refused to protect the products of his genius, and started getting increasing hits from legitimate high risk jobs, she had taken up Wade's offer of tech guru, all-round information hound and mission screener. He'd become the indispensable hub that Team Possible orbited; a friend she trusted. Kim raised an eyebrow. "You seem rather calm about this."

"You spend enough time on the Internet you see the dark hidden things that people do. Just like you can also get to know the people who are the bright lights in the world."

"Like one world-saving teen cheerleader, her best friend and his pet?" she suggested with a grin.

"Yeah, something like that," Wade returned her smile.

"Thanks Wade, you ro-," Something in Kim's mind suddenly clicked. "Wait a minute! You have security saved security feeds from inside my room?" Kim growled, her eyes glinting dangerously.

"It's for security purposes, Kim. I never look unless there's need. We thought you might have been kidnapped! You know with saving the world, we have to watch your back. Some of the people we throw down with are more than willing to put the hurt on you and your family." Kim hesitated.

"So you don't sneak peeks at me while I'm undressing? Watch me in the bathroom, way wrong stuff like that?"

"No Kim, I'd never!" Kim looked at Wade skeptically for a moment.

"Well, okay. But I want you to make me a copy of all my room feeds for the last four months, and then destroy the originals. All of them."

"Uh... okay. What do you need the footage for?"

"A little surprise," Kim smirked. "And Wade? You rock."

* ~ * * ~ * * ~ * * ~ * * ~ * * ~ * * ~ * * ~ * * ~ * * ~ * * ~ * * ~ *

Villains for one reason or another crawled out of the woodwork. Perhaps it was because of the Valentine Holiday; Kim supposed it was hard for mad scientists wanted for crimes against the world and humanity to get dates. Or perhaps it was because it was spring.

She had foiled Duff Killigan's mad scheme to turn the Sahara into his personal golf course; the resultant drastic change would have wreaked havoc on the global climate. She foiled Senor Senior Junior's plot to capture both Brittina and MC Honey and force them to back-up his non-existent pop career. Senor Senior Senior had threatened to fix the FIFA World Cup so that his own team of players could win. Frugal Lucre, Summer Gale and AdrenaLynn had some weird cocked up plan to mutate all beans into jumping beans; that one did not end well for the three villains when they were overrun by the larvae. At least Kim was able to prevent the resultant explosion of moths and save the world bean industry. Monkey fist was the most active, hitting several archaeological digs in South America, Africa and Asia. Kim, Ron and Rufus finally tracked him down in a hidden villa on the slopes of the Himalayas, somewhere in Tibet.

And that wasn't including the locust problem in Mexico, the flooding in China, several research teams that needed rescue from the deep jungle in Africa or the multitude of small calls as people found the warming weather a great way to get themselves into trouble. The hikers in Yosemite. The free-climber on the Eiffel Tower. The ice skaters on the Potomac.

Kim was increasingly irritable and agitated. She had trouble sleeping. Her libido was driving her insane. She wanted Shego. Her body wanted Shego. Her chest constricted at the thought of the green-tinted woman.

Through it all, she agonized about the comet powered woman.

_What's she doing? Why hasn't she come around? Couldn't she even just leave a message? A flower? A note? She's an awesome and amazing thief, godammit!_

At cheer practise, the squad discovered the true meaning of hell. They had heard the rumours of Kim's expulsion from midget league coaching, but had brushed it off as sibling oneupmanship. They now discovered the unfortunate truth. The cheerleaders noted her intense focus, her cheery know-it-all do-it-all attitude and the sudden increase of incredible difficulty of Mad Dog cheer routines. Ron's name was dropped from the BF list.

Kim desperately wanted someone to speak to, but didn't want to monopolize Monique's time, or seem too tweaked.

After a week, she had worse thoughts.

_Was Shego just in it for the thrill? Had she made a woman out of me, taught me the amazing world of intimacy with a loved one, and then lit out? Was she laughing behind her hand all this time? Has she... dumped me? Has Shego found someone else?_

The cheerleaders hid their worry behind pompoms and quick getaways after practise. Oblivious to Kim's increasing agitation, or perhaps egged on by it, Bonnie continued sniping her cutting remarks at the teen hero at every opportunity.

During one practise...

"Hey K, I see you're your cheerful self. Got dumped, again?"

Jim and Tim were on hand with the Mad Dog Mascot routine, with Ron looking on, giving them pointers about the most effective use of his Mad Dog Froth Formula. Kim said nothing, glaring hard. That was nothing compared to the sudden inferno of fighting aura that poured out of her. Bonnie squeaked, retreating away several steps, her cheer shoes screeching on the gym floor as she suddenly backpedalled from the murderous look Kim had delivered. Bonnie, rarely ruffled by a simple scowl, could not understand her sudden desire to either flee screaming or fall to the ground and grovel in abject fear. And in front of a trembling with rage, accredited Kung-Fu master. A registered lethal weapon. She felt as if she was staring down the barrel of a very large, very deadly barrel named Kim Possible. Always sensitive to their sister's moods, the younger siblings paused, sensing the hair-trigger temper their sister had been nursing for the last two weeks was about to go off.

"Ow-owr-wr-wr-wrooooo!" Ron howled, sliding in between the cheer captain and the vice captain. He stood up and turned to the shell shocked twins.

"And that, is how you do the howl and slide, boys!" Out of the corner of his eye, he watched his best friend since pre-kindergarten shake herself out of her murderous haze.

She took a very deep breath and exhaled slowly, the sound echoing in the silence of the cavernous gym.

"Bonnie, please lead today's practise," she said in a soft voice. "I'm not feeling well." She turned on her heel and headed for the locker room. Even before the gym door slammed shut behind her, she could hear the hushed whispering of the uniformed girls.

In the shower, Kim rested her head against the tiles as the scalding water sluiced down her in sparkling rivulets.

_Where are you, Shego?_

_Why haven't you buzzed me?_

_No email._

_No number to call._

_I can't even get a hold of you!_

Kim let out a low growl of frustration and spent the next five minutes trying to keep herself together.

* ~ ** ~ ** ~ ** ~ ** ~ ** ~ ** ~ ** ~ ** ~ ** ~ ** ~ *

"Kim!"

The red-head turned as she stepped out of the locker room. Ron strolled up in his typical sports jersey and baggy pants. She sighed in relief as the blond can alongside her.

"Hey Ron. Sorry about that..." Kim trailed off.

"No worries, KP." Ron thought for a moment. "Although I hope Bonnie has a spare change of underwear. She's needed to be taken down a peg or two for a long, long time." Kim nodded morosely.

"So, Kim. You, me, Rufus and Bueno Nacho. My treat. Whaddaya say?" Kim thought, this was the perfect opening. _When will I ever get a better chance to spill?_ Kim mustered her courage.

"Sure Ron, but it'll be a dutch treat."

"Uh, okay. But KP, you know that Bueno Nacho is Mexican, not Dutch, right?" Ron smiled as Kim sniggered.

_Maybe this won't be so bad._

* ~ ** ~ ** ~ ** ~ ** ~ ** ~ ** ~ ** ~ ** ~ ** ~ ** ~ *

_Oh. My. God. So the drama!_

Kim sat agonizing in her booth. Across was Ron, but he wasn't eating. On the table was Rufus and he wasn't eating. They sipped at iced drinks, two pairs of eyes watching. Waiting.

"So.... Kim. Is there something you'd like to tell me? Because, I'm all ears. And it's not just because I'm Jewish." Kim roused herself and offered an off kilter smile.

"Ron... I've realized something a-about myself. Something new, a-and, weird. And I-" Kim swallowed, sipping her own beverage before continuing. "I'm.... afraid... it could change what we have." Was it harder because Ron was uncharacteristically serious? In the past he'd always helped her get past things with his goofy ways and a certain levity that made everything shift into perspective.

"KP, there isn't a thing in the world that can tears us apart but us. I'll always have your back, you know that." Ron paused as Kim stared at the cup in her hands. He waited and then said, "I'm gonna get a refill. You want one?" Kim could not respond, wrestling with emotions that jerked and bucked and pulled, trying to escape her fiercely determined control. Forcing down a sigh, he stood and turned.

"Ron, I'm seeing Shego," Kim said in a low voice. Ron froze, not sure if his mind was playing tricks on him.

"KP, could you say that again? I think I didn't wash my ears out or something..."

"Shego... is... " Kim's face flamed bright red. "... my..." _here it is, I'm gonna say it this is it, say it say it say it now!_ "...girlfriend."

And with that, all the tension, all the ferociously gorchy feelings that had been pent up under her skin, that tormented her, was released, leaving a euphoria of acceptance. It was as if simply by speaking it lent a weight to it, made it more real. It was as if something settled in her mind, giving it a space to live and thrive in her existence.

Ron's brown eyes opened wide. His mouth opened, closed, opened again then closed. He sat back down, his face blank. His eyes began to dart back and forth.

"Shego's my girlfriend." Kim said with more confidence and a bit of pride, a giggle of emotion thrilling up from the pit of her stomach to the top of her head. _I've said it. Twice! That dangerous, beautiful and ferociously dead sexy thief is MY GIRLFRIEND!_

Rufus staggered and fell against the blond's forearm. Then stared up at his friend, whose eyes now darted back and forth so quickly that Kim started to worry.

"Ron?"

"Oh my god, YOU GUYS ARE LIKE GUACAMOLE!" Ron shouted, an ecstatic expression on his face. Kim and Rufus stared at the blond boy.

"Uh-oh," Rufus tsked, shaking his head and whirling a pointed finger at his head. "Snapped!"

_Guacamole? What the heck?_

"R-ron, are you..."

"Okay? Yeah. Wow. Guacamole..." Ron shook his head.

"Time out Ron. Explain this guacamole thing to us non-cooking types."

"Guacamole is easy to make, but hard to make well. It takes time and practise. Too much avocado, which is light green by the way, and it becomes too thick, browns too quickly. Too much tomato, ahem, red, and it gets too watery. But that and add in just the right amounts of lime, salt, coconut milk, red onion, black pepper, cumin, garlic and cilantro, whip it all up... and it's a dip that's fit for the gods themselves." Ron looked up with a dreamy expression and held up a hand in benediction.

"Whipped, minced, chopped and diced  
Lime, salt, onion, pepper, milk  
A true red-green dream."

Kim and Rufus stared at the blond as the haiku settled around them, their mouths open in what the blond thought was awe.

"Uh-huh, yep snapped, tsk, tsk, tsk," Rufus shook his head.

"Oooookay, naco-boy, you're gonna hafta come back from orbit."

"Huh? Well, it's obvious. Guacamole is like the Royalty of Mexican Dips. It has almost an infinite number of taste and texture combinations, but it is sometimes, the dip or garnish that can hold a meal together. I mean, the secret ingredient ..." Ron's eyes suddenly widened, then darted about. "Uh... I mean,... not supposed to talk about that... non-discombobulating clause and all that..."

"Non-disclosure. And I already know Ron. I was your test subject, remember?" Kim smiled.

"Aheheheh... Oh, and guacamole goes great with tacos!" Ron gave a lopsided grin. Kim covered her mouth, but a giggle escaped. Rufus began to chuckle. Kim tried to hold back a guffaw and failed, breaking into a series of rip-snorts and chortles, before just outright laughing. Rufus fell on his back and rolled with mirth.

When they brought their hilarity back under control, Kim wanted to be sure.

"I... didn't think you'd take it so well," Kim admitted. "Even better than Monique."

"I'm alright with you and Shego. I mean from one angle, it could be so many levels of wrongsick. But KP," Ron looked up at her with smile. "You know lesbians are just so totally hot! And man, you and Shego? Wow." Rufus looked at his two favourite teens chatting happily. He could read their pheromones, and they smelled like they were going to settle into another one of their long, nearly incomprehensible BFF sessions. He took some money out of Ron's wallet and headed for the Bueno Nacho counter.

"Yeah, she is a wow."

"So are you a...?"

"Not sure. Still think some guys are attractive, but Shego's just so ferociously hot."

"And you can have barbeque without a grill too."

"Only if you want your food tasting like ozone."

"Really?"

"Really."

"So how did it happen?"

"Well, she's my stalker."

"What?! No way, really? So it was her...?"

"Yeah, my saving angel. How weird is that?"

"Nothing to do with weird, that's a twelve on the freakmeter."

"And about three thousand on the joygasm meter."

"No!"

"Yep."

"Wow."

"Yeah."

"So you guys?"

"Yep."

"And it was that?"

"Oh, yeah."

"Aw, man. That's another first you got before I did."

"That's okay, potential-boy. I heard from someone that there hasn't been a shortage of the ladies for the Ron-meister."

"Ye-e-e-ah, the R-man still hasn't gotten past second."

"What?! With all those nights you were out? Monique would text me every time! And you never got freaky? Like, what?"

"C'mon, Kim! You know I'm not.... like... that! For me, it's gotta mean something!"

"That's... both sweet and dumb Ron."

"Part of the Ron-charm, bay-bee!"

"You're probably the only guy these girls have ever run into that would say no to sex."

"I'm not saying no. I just haven't found that special someone to share it with...."

"What? Not with Yori?"

"KP, we live on opposite sides of the world. You know how much it would cost to keep up a 'ship like that?"

"What about Monique?"

"Wrestling and Monster trucks, she's like a guy friend."

"Tara?"

"Sweet, but taken. Mankey. Damn you Mankey..."

"Amelia?"

"Gone for college. Even if she did, she's way too stuck-up for me."

"Bonnie?"

"..."

Snicker.

"Aw, you know what I mean! It's gotta be special!"

"Yeah.... actually I do."

"Huh? You mean, you and Shego?"

"Yeah."

"I... wow... that's... uh.... wow..."

"You said that already."

"Okay... Did you tell her?"

"Yep!"

"That's just like Felix and Zita."

"Other than the fact they got engaged on their first 'non-date', yeah, I guess."

"But then if everything's been so great, what was with that thing back at practise?"

"Oh. Well, I, uh,... haven't felt,... seen... or heard... from her in... two weeks..."

"...Huh. I would've been burning up my minutes if it was three _hours_."

"I remember."

"So really, nothing?"

"..."

Ron sighed at his best friend's blushing face and sat back, spreading his arms along the top of the booth bench.

"It's gonna fine, KP. But ya know, we've been so busy. Dontcha think Shego has buzzed your place, but you haven't been there? She can't just have the time to sit around; I mean I just can't see her waiting on you. She doesn't have any way to reach us that might be untraceable, especially if we're on mission, and if she leaves anything in your room, heck anybody could find it..."

"But she put a picture in my locker, like two weeks ago! She didn't seem to have any problems then."

"Picture? Lemme see it... omigawd. That is four thousand degrees of hotness right the-e-e-re... amp down Kim, I'm just playing with ya, no need to jell!"

"Well, why doesn't she do something like that again?"

"Why would she want a repeat performance? Her romance tank can't be dry, she's a woman."

"I know she's a wo-... man,..."

"KP?"

"... a woman..."

"You okay? KP!"

"..."

"Earth to Kim!"

"..."

"Control to Bubble-butt!"

"Oh. My. God. I am such an idiot! I can't believe it!"

"Huh? What?"

"I'm acting like the girl!"

"Uh, hate to break it to you, KP, but you _are_ a girl."

"But Shego's a girl too."

"Really? And here I thought she might be a man or something, she's always so angry..."

"Ron!" Kim laughed as she pretended to smack her blond friend. "What I mean is, when a girl dates someone, we sometimes wait for the 'morning after call'. We don't want to look to clingy or desperate. But both Shego and I have never had girlfriends before... what if she's waiting for the 'morning after call' too?" Kim's wide eyes turned from saucer-eyed realization to a seductive plotting in an instant. "And I've got just the right 'thinking-of-you' gift!" Kim lunged across the table and embraced her startled friend. "Thanks, Ron!"

"Uh... yeah.... you're welcome." Ron eeped.

"..."

"Uh, KP? Not that I mind a bi-sexual hugging me, but from a sister-like BFF, it's a bit beyond sick and wrong."

"Sorry." Kim released her best friend.

"Yeah." The hero stood up, her face already beginning to glow. Ron could see the girl was entering mission mode.

"I gotta go, I want to get started right away."

"On what?"

"The perfect gift for my girlfriend." Kim left with a smirk and a spring in her step. Ron stared after her as Rufus came out of a naco induced stupor. The small pink rodent watched Kim's retreating figure then up at his friend.

"Awww, Shego?" he chittered. Ron sighed.

"Yep. She's got it bad."

* ~ * * ~ * * ~ * * ~ * * ~ * * ~ * * ~ * * ~ * * ~ * * ~ * * ~ * * ~ *

Her gift took a lot longer than Kim expected. First there was just way too much material. Second, she wasn't sure what her lover's taste in music was like. Third, she was called away five times that week for missions, two of which required inter-hemispheric travel. By the time the gift was done, she was into her third week and was definitely seeing signs of withdrawal.

_Is she okay? Had one of Drakken's harebrained schemes killed her? Or... or maybe... another villain... or even worse, an evil non-villain organization... had decided to wipe out the interfering Doctor... had they taken her out too?_

Wade traced some shipments of material Drakken was known to favour but to no avail. No recent thefts that Shego had been present at; Kim was sure after brief stops to investigate, even if she was mid-mission. Wade, with all his resources simply noted that they seemed to be active, but was unable to trace the materials being purchased to their end point. His hypothesis, however, was that Drakken had some sort of underwater base.

Kim slipped the case beneath her windowsill and prayed for the best.

It was still there the next morning. That afternoon, during school, Team Possible was called away to save five hikers who had gone missing in an avalanche in the Rocky Mountains. After three hours of searching on rocket propelled snowboards, Rufus caught wind of them and found them holed up in a small cave. By the time she returned home, she had finished her homework and was ready to rest her exhausted body. Before she slipped into the covers, she checked her windowsill.

The case was gone.

And in its place?

A small card with a black lip stick print.

The hero grinned.

"Yes!"

A glorious rush of adrenaline had her jumping from foot to foot, a little dance of joy as she spun.

* ~ * * ~ * * ~ * * ~ * * ~ * * ~ * * ~ * * ~ * * ~ * * ~ * * ~ * * ~ *

_Beep-Beep Be-Beep_

"Sorry, Mister Barkin! I gotta take this!" Kim called as she stuffed her books in her bag and lit out of English. She could hear the hulking man's growl muffle as the door closed behind her.

"What's the sitch, Wade?" said a cheery red-head as she sped down the hall to the exit.

"Uh... Doctor Director was wondering if you might have some time..." Wade said, not meeting her eyes. Alarm bells were suddenly going off like no tomorrow in Kim's head as she pushed open the outside doors.

"Wade, has something happened?"

"Sorry Kim. I ran into Global Justice's newest hacker recruit. She caught me snooping around some of Hench Co.'s coltan subsidiaries. You know, the ones funding the war in Congo. I didn't say anything, but you know Doctor Director... she's a genius when it comes to correlative relationships..."

"Newest hacker recruit?" Kim blinked. "Coltan... that cellphone stuff Drakken uses for his synthodrone brain chips? So I guess I should be expecting- Eeep!" Kim stifled her surprise when a hole opened beneath her feet. She fell into a capsule like transport module which then rocketed through a series of twisting yellowish green transparent tubes.

As the wind whistled past her, she sat, placing her satchel on her lap and crossed her arms. She'd never liked the GJ chutes; it reminded her of the time she found out exactly where Gemini's own chutes ended. It took her three weeks to get over the sight, another month for the knowledge.

_What's going on? Why would Doctor Director call on me like this? We haven't had a GJ sanctioned mish since the flood in Istanbul!_

After a few minutes, Kim noted the rapidly warming air and slid her hairbrush from her satchel before looping the strap over her black and burgundy trimmed spring jacket. A moment later, the capsule stopped and the doors slid open. A few strokes of the brush and she was ready. To the side, a stiffly correct figure in a blue jumpsuit stood waiting.

"Miss Possible." The man's deadpan voice had always rubbed Kim the wrong way, ever since his rude outburst within five minutes of their first meeting, where he called her an "amateur".

"Mr. Du," Kim managed to match his tone of smug reliability. In the dark cavernous room, large screens dominated the walls, the only light illuminating the dimly lit controls panels manned by other blue-suited figures.

"This way, if you please," Will gestured down the left, between the transport tubes and the consoles.

"Doctor Director's office?" Will Du, brightest and most accomplished Agent of the Global Justice corps, was not someone Kim would like to know to any greater degree. It wasn't because his skin was not white or black; she suspected South Asian. It wasn't because he had ears that stuck out; heck her best friends since pre-kindergarten had the same. It wasn't because his hair looked like a helmet, or that he had a very slim build. Or his painstakingly memorized rules of engagement and policies. It was all about respect.

Kim found it very difficult to respect someone who simply refused to respect her. That, and he'd used his watch and zapped Ron just for wanting to shake his hand.

As Will lead her along the corridors of the Global Justice base, she wondered if there could be any guy who was more stiff than Will. She'd seen wooden boards that had more give.

They stopped at a desk that sat before a security door. Behind the desk, a stunningly pretty brunette looked up as they approached. New assistant?

"Miss Flage," Will nodded.

"Will," the woman replied with a sweet smile. A smile that deepened as her eyes travelled to the redhead.

"Ms. Possible." Kim blinked. _Had the smile grown?_

"Uh... Kim's fine."

"Then you can call me Camelia. Doctor Director is waiting inside, please go through." Will moved to a chair that was by the desk and sat. Without hesitation, Kim pushed open the door and walked through.

"So that's Kim Possible?" Miss Flage sounded amused.

"Cammie..." she heard Will's frustrated sigh as the door closed.

The lighting in the room was dim, like the rest of the base. Morose colours on faded greys dominated the decor. Opposite the door was a heavy utilitarian metallic desk. To the left was a small table with four chairs, the right, a coffee table and a drab couch.

"Kim," called a warm contralto from the desk. "Have a seat, I'll join you in a second." Tall and as well endowed as any Reuben, Betty had an hourglass figure that Kim had always been jealous of. Her full, short brown hair and eye patch gave the woman a rakishly handsome air that was effective in masking the great tactical genius behind her pleasant face.

"Sure," Kim replied, somewhat nonplussed. She opted for the couch and sat.

"Water? Pop?" Betty asked as she stood.

"Uh, water." Kim started getting nervous. Was this a business meeting or a casual one? Since her stalker-shaking days, Kim had popped by to see Betty periodically, trying to shake the presence tailing her. Had Betty taken that as a sign that Kim was relaxing around her with some casual familiarity?

Betty passed a cool bottle to Kim, in her tight fitting Blue Global Justice suit. Kim noticed that Betty seemed quite a bit more filled out than Shego, then lowered her gaze and blushed, opening her bottle while grappling her wandering eyes into submission.

"Kim, I'm glad I could see you on such short notice," Betty said, twisting open her own bottle of water and sipping from it. "How have you been?"

"Good. School's been good, but missions have been really hectic the last few weeks. I've been all over! The travel's fun and it gives me time to finish my homework." Betty nodded.

"And how's your parents?"

"Mom's good. She's going to be the proctor for this year's national neurosurgeon exams, so she's busy arranging for cadavers and such. Dad, well you know. He's working on some Japanese funded project. Comes home sometimes; he says they're in crunch right now."

"Kim, I called you here because I've seen a report that worries me," Betty sighed. "I don't know why it wasn't brought to my attention earlier, but when I heard that Wade had been snooping around the Hench Co. coltan stocks... well."

"What is it?" Kim felt a tremor of anxiety.

"About four weeks ago, one of our satellite sensors detected a massive plasma surge in or near around your house. Three days later, a massive phenomena of plasma was observed in the sky in the lower layer of the mesosphere."

_Shego!_

"Do you know anything about this?" Kim weighed her options. Would it be smart or stupid to dissemble at this point? Even if she lied, could she do so convincingly?

_Darn it..._

"Doctor Director..."

"Yes, Kim?"

"Betty. I-... I think I should tell you something... It might be hard to understand... even I don't really understand it..." Was a strange look was blossoming in the brunette's eyes?

"Kim...? What is it?"

"Betty, Shego is my girlfriend."

"Your... girlfriend."

"Yeah."

"And so... uh, but you're... and she's still?" Betty's brow was scrunched up with the effort of assimilating Kim's information.

"When we get together, we just hang out and stuff. I don't talk shop at all." Betty suddenly reached out and took Kim's hands in her own.

"But Kim, she's a wanted criminal! You can't even claim to be innocent here; you know she's wanted. You could be arrested just by association!"

"Betty, I'm telling you because I trust you. And I hope you trust me too. Don't ask me to do anything to capture Shego, 'cause you know I won't." Kim's gaze was clear, her leaf-green eyes calm pools of assurance. Betty shook her head, unable to comprehend what was happening.

"Kim,... I don't know... right now, we have a level 2 surveillance order on her, a do not approach, do not contain. She's dangerous! Are you sure she's not trying to trick you?"

"I'm sure."

"How? How can you be sure?" Kim was surprised to see a bit of sparkle at the corners of the woman's eyes.

"Because I love her."

"Kim..." Betty's wide-eyed incredulous gasp hurt.

"Please, Betty... don't make me regret things. Because it won't be the fact that I love an international thief that I'll regret. If Wade calls me out to take on Drakken and Shego, Team Possible will do our job. I promise you that. And if I do put Shego in jail, so be it. I won't lose, not even to her. She knows this. Just like I know she won't go down easy, just because it's me." Betty took a deep breath, pulling her thoughts together.

"One condition, one of my agents has to be part of Team Possible."

"Okay. Just not Will. I'll take anyone else, but that guy just won't listen to me."

"Alright." Betty shook her head. "Kim, I know you said you wouldn't regret this. Please don't make me regret anything either."

"You know my motto." Betty laughed hollowly along with her.

* ~ * * ~ * * ~ * * ~ * * ~ * * ~ * * ~ * * ~ * * ~ * * ~ * * ~ * * ~ *

It was almost another month before Kim saw Shego again.


	15. Blurry Lyrics

**Chapter Eight: Blurry**  
**by Wes Scantlin, Jimmy Allen, Doug Ardito**  
**Performed by Puddle of Mud**

Everything's so blurry  
And everyone's so fake  
And everybody's empty  
And everything is so messed up  
Preoccupied without you  
I cannot live at all  
My whole world surrounds you  
I stumble and I crawl

You could be my someone  
You could be my scene  
You know that I'll protect you  
From all of the obscene  
I wonder what you're doing  
Imagine where you are  
There's oceans in between us  
But that's not very far

Can you take it all away?  
Can you take it all away?  
When ya shoved it in my face?  
This pain you gave to me  
Can you take it all away?  
Can you take it all away?  
When ya shoved it in my face?

Everyone is changing  
There's no one left that's real  
So make up your own ending  
And let me know just how you feel  
'Cause I am lost without you  
I cannot live at all  
My whole world surrounds you  
I stumble and I crawl

You could be my someone  
You could be my scene  
You know that I will save you  
From all of the unclean  
I wonder what you're doing  
I wonder where you are  
There's oceans in between us  
But that's not very far

Can you take it all away?  
Can you take it all away?  
When ya shoved it in my face?  
This pain you gave to me  
Can you take it all away?  
Can you take it all away?  
When ya shoved it in my face?  
This pain you gave to me

Oh, Nobody told me what you thought  
Nobody told me what to say  
Everyone showed you where to turn  
Told you where to run away  
Nobody told you where to hide  
Nobody told you what to say  
Everyone showed you where to turn  
Showed you where to run away

Can you take it all away?  
Can you take it all away?  
When ya shoved it in my face?  
This pain you gave to me  
Can you take it all away?  
Can you take it all away?When ya shoved it in my face?  
This pain you gave to me

No, this pain you gave to me

Take it all away  
Take it all away  
Pain ya gave to me  
Take it all away  
This pain you gave to me  
Take it all away  
This pain you gave to me


	16. Chapter Eight: Blurry

Disclaimer:  
Kim Possible © Disney  
Blurry © Puddle of Mud

A/N: This one took a long time, but has some important development.

* ~ * * ~ * * ~ * * ~ * * ~ * * ~ * * ~ * * ~ * * ~ * * ~ *

**Chapter Eight: Blurry**

"Shego!"

The woman grimaced at the way her name was being abused. Drakken had always done that; Shego had always felt it was somewhat demeaning for a person to bellow her name in such a manner. Thus she did what she always did when Drakken overstepped his boundaries.

"Shego! Where are you!"

The voice was closer now. Her hands were slightly wet as she held the trigger down, playing the nozzle back and forth. The arced, sparkling spray caused a blush inducing memory to surface and she smiled.

"Sheg-" The voice was directly behind her. "Um,... Shego, why are you hosing down the hoverpod? Don't you know it's bad for the control boards?"

She released the trigger and without turning around, sent a spray of water deftly behind her.

"Aaagghh!"

"Panels are covered, Doctor D. Hafta hose them down every now and then before they get funky."

"Oh... I never noticed it before."

"A good thief uses their eyes and hands. A great one uses all their senses."

"Hrmph. Well, and how was the test?"

_A mind blowing, smashing success._

"Not gonna work. Sorry Doc. You get a big enough machine up there to disrupt the field, it'll kill you when you set it off."

"Really? Pity. I'll just file it away for revisiting then..." Although the voice began to recede, the grumbling continued. "The EMP machine was just finished last night; perhaps I can sell it on Evil-Bay..."

Ever since the failed world domination attempt with a weather machine in Canada, Drakken had installed drainage plugs in all the hoverpods. Thank God for that, or Kimmie's smell would be all over the pod. Not that she minded really, but it would be too distracting and eventually, unhygienic. Besides, the henchmen might recognize the smell of sex. She'd rather get rid of any evidence before questions even arose.

* ~ * * ~ * * ~ * * ~ * * ~ * * ~ * * ~ * * ~ * * ~ * * ~ *

"Kiiiiimmm!"

Her voice echoed into the grey void, reverberating against the cold concrete walls that towered above her, claws of steel and grey stone hunched against a darkened oppressive sky. She felt like she'd been searching for days. Her meticulously groomed hair a voluminous mess, her catsuit in tatters, ripped at the knees where she'd fallen once too many times. She bent over, panting, her breath misting in the cool pre-dawn air.

Frantic.

Overwrought.

Afraid.

_Where the fuck is she? Where's Princess?_

She drew on reserves long since depleted and staggered on. Running blindly now, the gravel crunching beneath her scuffed soles. She ran and ran. Her lungs burned with each desperate gasp, legs heavy as if wading through molten lead. She staggered into a corner and leaned against the building for a moment. A wide road stretch across her path. All concrete and metal.

_Why am I looking for her?_

All she knew was that she must. It didn't make sense. She shook her head. She didn't even know where she was. All she knew was that she needed to find the petite hero. She needed to get something back from her.

A flash of movement across the street.

Her head whipped up. She pushed herself away from the wall and sprinted down the long, wide road. She vaulted over the median and then onto the empty sidewalk. The sound of her pounding feet taunted her, echoing across the vast silence that filled the streets she wandered. Her gasps hitching. Her chest, caved in.

"Kiiiimmmm!" she barely wheezed out.

A titter of laughter from around the corner.

_Move. C'mon, move, goddammit!_

Shego pumped her aching arms, pulled her cramping legs into action and stumbled past the corner and froze.

There, her red hair shining, a bright splash of colour against the pre-dawn grey, was Kim. The girl turned her radiant face toward the haggard thief and watched wordlessly as Shego shuffled up to her. The woman's chest would not stop heaving.

"Where... is it. You have... it" she gasped out.

"What Shego, where's what?" the girl's lilting voice rippled through her, marking territory in her mindscape, laying claim to her. She shook her black mane attempting to deflect the effect. She brought her hands up and gripped the girl's arms. Her wild glowing eyes met the girls own luminous orbs.

"You... know....! You know... what!"

The red-head cocked her head for a moment. A finger tapped petulantly in an achingly charming display. Her face lit with comprehension.

"Ohhhh! Yeah, I just finished with it. It's over there." A gleaming finger pointed at a municipal waste bin that the woman had just passed by. Shego stared at it; a tremor of trepidation coursed through her.

_No. No. Nonononononono....._ ran through her head as she limped toward the canister. The dread was welling up from the soles of her feet, rising past her weak knees, the cold in her stomach.

Shego paused to turn and look at Kim. Behind her, the hero had already turned and began walking away with a happy spring in her step, humming tunelessly.

With a snarl, she lit a hand and tore off the top of the bin, scattering smoking plastic and metal across the grey concourse. She steeled her courage against the terror that threatened to drown the last shreds of her sanity and looked inside.

Lying atop the putrid refuse was a glistening lump. A single teeth-marked chunk had been taken out of it. A red thing that twitched convulsively.

Her heart.

Tears forming in her eyes, the woman reached out and, cradling the beating organ in her hands, lifted it slowly, gently. Behind her, she could feel the girl walking farther and farther away. Tears spilling now from below her luxurious eyelashes. She raised the struggling core of her, and clutched it to her, covering the gruesome hole in her chest where it had been forcibly torn.

Shego's eyes snapped open. Tears, bright and wet, had soaked her pillow. She lay, the despair hanging heavily to her rapidly surfacing mind, choking back sobs as she clutched the black silk sheets and the mattress beneath.

_I'm okay.... it's okay... I'm, all... right..._

She couldn't get Kim out of her head when she was awake, and now these weird nightmares were beginning to plague her. At least in the beginning there was a lot of sex to keep her happy. She'd soaked her bed with entirely different fluids. But now, her nighttime visions were increasingly lucid and dangerous. She closed her eyes and groaned. Why couldn't Kim let her sleep?

She turned over and tried to get some shuteye.

* ~ * * ~ * * ~ * * ~ * * ~ * * ~ * * ~ * * ~ * * ~ * * ~ *

"Boss..."

Rolling.

Twisting.

_Yeah, like that Princess, just right there._

_A little more, c'mon..._

"Boss?"

_Do it._

_Yeah, do it my little bitch._

_Oh yeah, that's it, harder, harder...!_

"Boss, stop!"

Shego blinked. For a long, disorienting moment, she stared blankly at her surroundings. She stood in the middle of the blue mats. Around her, five red suited men lay, groaning. Some still had smoking claw marks raked through their uniforms, the sweet cloying smell of second degree burns in the air. Twelve others cowered behind the weightlifting equipment in the corner. Eddie edged gingerly toward her, his hands up in a placating gesture, like approaching an unpredictably dangerous predator.

"B-boss?" he gulped.

"I..." Shego stopped.

_What can I say? I nearly killed these guys while I was having a wet daydream about my arch-nemesis? What the fuck!_

"Help them to the infirmary, then put the others on the routine, alright Eddie?" Shego's eyes glinted dangerously.

"Sure boss... take it easy."

Shego stalked away.

"What the fuck just happened?" one of the goons whispered across the room to Eddie.

"Hell if I know," he murmured.

The door slid shut behind her. She needed a drink. Something that would hit hard and heavy, peel paint from a wall. But she shouldn't. Alcohol and depression, not a good mix. She headed for the cafeteria.

It had been a week since Shego had dropped Kim off at home. She was hoping Drakken would come up with a new scheme, then Kim would be forced to show up. She would give the hero an earful.

Seven days, and not a word from her.

No letters under the sill, no notes in the locker.

No calls, emails or whatever.

The red-head had to know that Shego couldn't just up and call the girl. Any connection always meant a path, a point of visible stability that the authorities could trace. Already, some servers on the federal eavesdropping project were dedicated toward finding her. At this point, she was glad that villains hadn't been labelled terrorist threats.... yet. They provided too much technology for the government to consider a shoot to kill approach. But reliable friends were telling her it was only a matter of time and public opinion.

Drakken, the big blue dork, was genius, but he was also sloppy; forgetting a transistor here, adding unstable functionality there. It was only because of her that they even had phone and Internet. This was a skill Shego had kept secret practically all her life. Forget firewalls. Forget satellite bouncing. We're talking about phased quantum transceivers on major power lines that hacked, yes, hacked into hundreds of thousands of zombie computers. Unnoticed by anti-virus scanners and firewalls because dammit it was routed through the freaking power-supply, directly to the board. High-level encryption, packets delivered throughout the zombie army, sometimes bounced to each other. Information bits that were generated by just the smallest of charges. It was a skill that was completely unknown and Shego wanted it kept that way. These days, a thief had to be technologically savvy as well as master of their own bodies.

Ethernet over power? Her own patent, with royalties rolling in from huge ethernet companies. Millions made. All legit. Like stealing candy from proverbial babies.

Why was the Go-Tower mainframe so easily hackable? Because she was no longer there, of course. Seven whole years was an entire freaking Era with a capital "ee" in the computing world.

But even so, she wouldn't want to pit herself against Wade "Ten-Four" Godot, Kim's very own computer samurai. He was a legendary white hat hacker, similar to Shego's legendary thieving skills. Word on the net was he was the one who created the mythical "fog" virus; pieces of benign distributed code that piggybacked on all sorts of files, but that would respond to specific commands and piece themselves together from partial sectors, providing information on demand.

So would she want to call?

No. Email, same deal. Internet, telephone, text messages. Everything was digital these days, and if your had an entry point, a stable one, you could be found.

Shego kept up Drakken's security because the fool just couldn't be trusted to do it.

Kim must know that Shego would not expose herself that way.

Besides, the last two times, it was Shego to Kim, not Kim to Shego. It was the little goody-goody's turn to do something.

Shego headed for the cafeteria, looking for her personal stash of water. The super-powered woman opened the fridge and pulled out a small cylindrical bottle of Norwegian artesian water. She then walked over to a leather lazy-boy in the corner flanked by a couple of microfiber couches and flopped down. She needed to relax. But how? When all she could think about was the enticing floral smell of the shampoo Kim used, the tiny waist and slim hips that accentuated the girl's long legs, the powerful yet slim and smooth build, the tiny lilting smile the hero reserved only for her-

_GOD DAMMIT!_

Stupid sexy Kim Possible.

* ~ * * ~ * * ~ * * ~ * * ~ * * ~ * * ~ * * ~ * * ~ * * ~ *

Drakken leaned over his workbench in the centre of the operations room, gazing speculatively at the schematics in his hands when he was interrupted by a very loud throat clearing. He realized that he had been hearing this sound for the last several minutes. The blue scientist looked up to see a large hulking figure of a red suited henchman.

"You really should get that looked at, erm.... you." The man stared momentarily at the scientist.

"Uh, yeah. Thanks, I'll do that," Eddie said. Drakken turned back to his blue prints. Eddie suppressed a sigh and cleared his throat even louder, adding a loud cough. "Sir?" he added. Drakken stopped and raised his bloodshot eyes to regard him.

"Yes, what is it...? Erm, what was your name again?"

"Eddie sir. I need to speak to you about something important."

"Something important? Well, then spit it out, don't stand there lallygagging."

"It's about the Bo-... er, I mean, Ms. Shego." Eddie replied, suppressing an eye-roll. He had been Hench Co. Affirmative Action Personnel union representative to the blue scientist for long enough, and although well inured to the man's idiosyncrasies, some days it taxed his patience.

"Shego! Hrmph. Well, I might as well ask what she's done now." Eddie frowned slightly at the man's slightly demeaning tone when talking about the woman the entire cadre of henchmen called "the Boss".

"Sir, there's something about her... I mean,... she seems... out of sorts."

Drakken gazed at the henchman for a moment.

"What is it, Albert? Spit it out!"

Eddie almost grimaced. He'd been the union representative in Drakken's operation for about four years now, and the man still couldn't remember his name!

"A week ago she nearly sent five guys to the morgue..."

"What? Why wasn't I notified?"

"It got listed under training accident. We thought that maybe her latest funk would go away in a couple of days, but..." Eddie felt bad, talking about the Boss this way. She had looked out for the men in more ways than the blue man ever had. Even if she huffed and screamed at them, she'd kept much of their injuries to a minimum, or had helped out in misconstrued ways. But this latest downturn in behaviour worried him.

"What else has she done?" Drakken asked, slightly surprised. In the five years Shego had worked for him, complaints from the union reps had steadily decreased. The last one was about three years ago.

"Uh, well,..."

"You can tell me Alistair. After all, I like to think that we're one big evil family, and if someone is having some problems, we should try to help them together. Because that's what families do. Now what else?"

"She,... she slagged the cappuccino machine."

"Ah. That must be why the fire alarm went off on Monday. Always hated Mondays. When I take over the world, I shall abolish Mondays, how's that?"

"Uh,..." the henchman shifted uncomfortably, not sure how to respond. "Sir, she did it because it didn't make the cappuccino quickly enough."

"I... I see."

"And then, she's been a lot more... colourful... with her language recently."

"Shego's always had a bit of a mouth on her-"

"She's been really chewing out the guys. Just yesterday, she made Ovidiu cry."

"Ovidiu?"

"Ex-Spetsnatz, from Romania."

"Hrm."

"Sir, I don't know about you, but we've noticed that she's been hanging around the base for the last two weeks. But for about eighteen months before that she'd been great. She hadn't talked down to us at all, and she's been even kinda fun to have around."

"Fun? Shego? The last eighteen months you say?" Drakken sat back, leaning heavily against the high back of his chair. It creaked slightly as he drummed his fingers on the workbench.

"Yes sir. She'd been out a lot during that time. We think maybe she's suffering from a bit of... uh... cabin fever."

"Cabin fever? But we don't even have-"

"Uh, I mean sir, that maybe she's been feeling cooped up or something. She rarely goes out now."

"Does she now..."

"Yes sir."

"Well, then, I have the perfect solution. You may leave this in my hands." Drakken leaned forward, resting his elbows on his blueprints. He steepled his black gloved hands and smiled.

"Thank you sir." Eddie sighed in relief. The blue man waved in dismissal.

"You may go, Archie."

* ~ * * ~ * * ~ * * ~ * * ~ * * ~ * * ~ * * ~ * * ~ * * ~ *

"While I'm working on the Hydroponic Cogitative Dampener, I'm going to need the remote chip design for the nanotick."

Drakken had his back turned, nervously surveying the door he had just entered. He was concerned. Very concerned. His cue cards had reminded him this morning to deal with Shego's problem. Well if she was feeling cooped up, he would send her out. He had reviewed the complaints filed. It was obvious that the last two weeks, as she was seen practically every day in their headquarters, her temperament had become increasingly unhealthy; that was, unhealthy for the rest of his staff, as her anger approached levels not seen since her first few years of employment. Perhaps if the Doctor could give her something to do to get her out of the lair, her mood would improve?

But that was not Drakken's current discomfort.

The blue scientist had his back to his scantily clad Chief Operations Officer for Random Mayhem to keep from staring at her as she bench pressed the four ton hoverpod. She was lifting quickly and steadily, revelling in the slow burn in her arms and chest.

"Gears!" she grunted out. A henchman, with a thick blindfold, depressed the round plastic button and three skids lowered into landing position, taking the weight of the pod off the green tinged woman. She slid out from under the vehicle. Her sweat glistening skin was covered only by a black sports bra and very short, forest green gym shorts. Her hair was tied into a single loose braid that was pinned up, Grecian style. She sat up, resting her arms on her knees, her generous bosom heaving as she breathed deeply.

"The nano-whozzits? You mean the thing that nearly blew little Kimmie's nose off?"

"Yes, that one. I need it to-"

"Wait, was that the volcano lair?"

"I suppose it was-"

"The one Cupcake blew up."

"The Hench Co. Technical Retrieval Team has put everything in the Bahamas Lair."

"Bahamas, hunh?" Shego seemed to think about it for a moment. "Yeah, okay. I could use the fresh air. "

"Excellent. And once you have the plans, I will..." and Drakken was off on a carefully prepared rant, but the woman's mind was no longer on the man who began detailing his next take over the world scheme.

* ~ * * ~ * * ~ * * ~ * * ~ * * ~ * * ~ * * ~ * * ~ * * ~ *

Shego floated the hovercraft outside in the frosted evening air, a fierce scowl creasing her beautiful brow.

Once again, the hero was not at home. No where to be seen.

_Where the fuck is she? Is she avoiding me? Is she a fucking L.U.G.? All curious,and now, curiosity satisfied, she's moved on? God dammit, how could she do this to me?_

The amorous thief muttered more obscenities under her breath. Her days were full with Drakken doing an inventory of all the lairs. She'd been taking the goon squad in and out of continents. And she had only herself to blame. She'd uncovered that someone had raided Drakken's storage facility. So far the only stolen item was the altered schematics for Professor Akari's nanotick.

Drakken had demanded a full-scale inventory of his holdings be made. Shego could have smacked herself in the head for that; who else would be flying the goons to all these facilities? And of course Drakken didn't go. He was busy with a plan to put the hurt on whoever had the gall to steal from him. Once they found the guy. Assuming they did.

But labouring all day at such mind-numbing work simply increased the chances of Shego day dreaming about the red-head. Her latest of increasingly disturbing dreams, featured her, impregnated by a hermaphrodite Kim.

_I mean really, what the fuck? Well,... at least I was happy..._

Happy? She'd been deliriously ecstatic. There she was, cookies cooling on a tray in the kitchen, bulging like a beached whale with a eight-month bun in the oven, kneeling on the linoleum floor and fellating her girlfriend's... she shook her head. Absurd. Weird.

The green skinned woman growled in annoyance even as her cheeks dusted a darker sensual green.

Shego didn't do needy or clingy. This new emotion of obsessive possessiveness was as strange and fickle as any wind that blew through her. At the oddest times of the day, her mind would turn to the little red-head and she would be seized with a powerful urge to find her. She would be making a sandwich and would think about how the girl had confessed her culinary disasters. They had laughed about it. Or during training her mind would fill with the sweet smell of her little taste of Pumpkin; she would nearly maimed a hapless goon. She'd had to stop giving lessons days ago.

Unnerving. It was unnerving how often it happened and how engrossed she would get.

Upsetting. Upsetting because she was no longer in control of her mind of her body. Like the hero had transmitted a virus into her subconscious and subverted all her higher faculties or sense of self.

Disturbing. Disturbing in how much the teen had invaded her mind, turning over long forgotten emotions and exposing them to the light. Awakening long forgotten passions, desires she had sworn never to allow to surface in her long journey for professional perfection. She thought she had accepted her attraction, her obsession with the girl, but now,... she was really starting to worry. That her conscience, something she had deliberately ground under her heel of villainous ambition, was beginning to resurface. She had actively pulverized it, pushing her thresholds harder and harder, until she felt comfortably numb. That, perhaps she was developing an attachment that could ultimately compromise her.

She wasn't going.... soft...

_Am I?_

When Shego had sold her services in the villain community, she had already garnered a hard won reputation as a stone-cold bitch who always got the job done.

Three weeks. It was three fucking weeks now since she'd seen Kim.

Each time the ache became to great she would, y'know, take care of the problem. But all it did was stoke the already raging fires higher, pushing it out of control. Landing her pathetic butt in the hoverpod to buzz the red-head. Who had the audacity to not even be there when she arrived. Forget the bedroom. She'd tried everywhere, looking for her brat. School. Church. Cheer practise. Family dinner. Bueno Nacho.

_I even went to **-the mall-**. The fucking mall!_

The last time they had been together, it was Shego who had poured herself out to the girl, a fervent libation at the Kim Possible altar. Things that had meant something to her. Sure the girl had flipped her switch, but what had she shared in return? Sex could be just as self-serving. Was she always going to be the one putting out?

_Oh my fucking god. I'm the skirt. The one who rolled over and just took it! God damn!_

She had never. Ever. Bitten her nails over anyone. Even her own plastic parents, when they died, she was fucking glad. She was ecstatic that her abusive, neglectful, self-absorbed pricks of parents were finally and completely out of her life. And then what happened? Hego happened. Just as filled with the same sanctimonious, self-righteous, self-aggrandizing tripe. Who tried to run her life, make her into a mindless frog-stepping little clone. Yes sir, no sir, thanks for jizzing in my cake-hole sir!

And now it was a little, teenaged red-head who was jerking her chain.

Apparently Kim Possible really could do anything.

Including being a jerk.

* ~ * * ~ * * ~ * * ~ * * ~ * * ~ * * ~ * * ~ * * ~ * * ~ *

"Sheego...!!"

Shego struggled against the girl's hands, her wrists held above her, a red-haired siren crooned sweet nothings in her ears. The thief felt a deep seated dread welling up, swallowed whole by a more powerful appetite. The catwalk's cool crosshatched metal grill pressed up cool and unyielding against her back. Far below she could hear Drakken's whine, lost, searching for her, calling for her in his all too familiar bellow.

Hair floated, an amorphous hazy red nebula, shadowing the face poised above her. The only feature she could see was the glint of hungry green eyes. Eyes that consumed her will, made her pride and reserve flinch, an aroused twitch that burned into her, branding her soul with a searing heat that emanated from her tingling scalp to her groin.

"K-kimmie," Shego gasped as a tendril of red stroked across her aching breasts, her back arching against the denial that wormed its way across her consciousness. "I c-can't... feel my... legs..." Her voice echoed across the cavernous expanse beyond the catwalk.

"Because you came so much, Sheeeegooo," came the hero's voice as the lithe body pressed down harder, forcing the warm breath from super-powered woman's lungs.

"Sheeeeeego!" Drakken's bellow was closer. A light, a bright bar against the dark swerved here and there, illuminating nothing. Doctor D, searching for her.

"Can't... let him... see- ah!" Shego's gasp guillotined the rest of the thought as the red-head dipped, sliding a burning tongue across her exposed flesh.

"Oh, you haven't yet told him, have you?" the girl's voice teased flexing her torso. The body hunched, driving a spike of pleasure into the woman's essence, skewering her mind in mid-rumination. Her thoughts were being crucified, little by little as the girl's insistent tongue continued to pound into her consciousness. A bright beam of light suddenly illuminated the two women. Shego was binded by the intensity and blinked against the sudden flare.

"Sheg- Oh my God!" The flashlight clattered to the ground, the beam skewing in a a crazy oblique angle on the red-head, finally illuminating her face.

"Don't worry Drew," the girl said, the predatory green eyes transfixing her where she lay. "I'll take care of you after I'm finished with Shego." The thief stared in horror at the fangs hidden behind the the petal lips, crimson, dripping in thick grimy gobbets. She eyes slowly, fearfully, followed the grisly rivulets down past the girl's erect nipples, down the smooth peach-pale skin, down past the wiry red tuft of hair between the girl's legs to the green-tinted, fang marked, bloody stumps of her own thighs.

"AAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGHHHHHH!" Shego screamed, sitting bolt upright. Her plasma flared around her. Her clothing, her sheets, her bed immediately disintegrated, the air itself catching fire as the temperature spiked several thousand degrees. She fell on her ass, hard, even as the concrete under her bubbled against her plasma shielded body. Shego stared wildly about, the lingering shock and horror interfering, not understanding where she was. She blinked.

_HOSHIT!_

She held her breath and changed the harmonics of her plasma, turning it into a rapidly expanding shockwave. She poured more power into it, forcibly displacing the super heated air away from her. The fire alarm began to sound, a dire warning preceding a second greater problem. Shego took a half second to leap for her door, slamming two plasma fists into the solid steal. Without breaking stride, she charged through the opening in another half second as the door, security frame all, tore out of the inches thick concrete. She juked quickly to the side and sprinted down the corridor, her pulverized door and frame embedded into the concrete across the hall.

She had four seconds before the specially shielded sprinkler system activated in her room.

**_Whumpf!_**

The liquid fire deterrent that hit the super heated air was as good as a home made bomb, instantly vapourizing in the several thousand degree temperatures. The explosion was deafening in the confined concrete bunker space. The entire two foot thick wall along her room cracked. The smooth outer layer popping free and falling in sheets shattering on the ground, exposing partially melted metal rods. Shego pelted down the hall as fast as she could, holding her breath, holding her wave shield around her. Cracks in the walls chased her, long spidery tendrils that hissed toxic yellowish steam from the speeding fractures. She spotted what she was looking for: the emergency blast door panel. She smashed through the protective plastic cover, depressing the spring loaded panel as she tore past, still running at full tilt. The cracks slammed to a stop at the two foot inset of the blast door frame. In less than a fraction of a second, the three inch thick metal door crashed down, sealing the vapourized toxic fire retardant in the long hall that lead to her secured room, the ventilation shaft, the wiring shunt and the pipes.

Shego stumbled to a halt forty yards from the blast door, leaning over and gasping for breath, her hands on her knees. After a minute or so, she turned and leaned her back against the cold grey surface. Her sweat straggled hair fell around her, hiding her face and body. She slid to the floor, drew up her knees and wrapped her arms around them.

Terror continued to course through her. Her mind felt like a seized combustion engine, thoughts refusing to continue pistonning through the residual detritus of emotions too crushing to assimilate. She couldn't think. She didn't want to. How Kim continued to fill her waking thoughts with fevered longing and her nights with monstrous trepidation.

Her rested her forehead onto her knees, her long black hair a barrier between her and... herself. Vaguely, she heard some bellowing; how long that went for she hadn't a clue. She continued to stare into the dark shadows of her dark locks.

Something slightly warm draped itself over her. A voice urged her to stand, and she did, her mind still stuttering against the chill inside of her. Hands led her some where, the voices eventually chivying her to sit. So, she sat.

"Boss?"

Shego blinked at the first word she'd understood all morning. It felt like she was hearing, seeing from the bottom of a deep well. She looked up to see Eddie, who flinched from her expression, but stood his ground.

They were sitting in the cafeteria. The henchman sat across the table, Drakken beside him. Eddie's hair was a nest of light brown bed head, the scar that ran down his right jawline puckered and pale. Drakken's mullet was untied, his hair falling free to the nape of his neck. Eddie wore dark blue pajamas, Drakken, a powder blue nightgown. She simply stared at them, slack faced. But her eyes...

"Boss, what happened?"

It took Shego several minutes to speak to them out of the long tunnel she was trapped in.

"Night... mare..." She could see the tick in Eddie's neck as he fought the urge to glance at Drakken. The scientist, on the other hand, glanced at the henchman. Eddie pushed a cup of her artesian water in front of her, but she didn't reach for it. She wasn't sure if she could keep her hand from shaking as she clutched the bathrobe close.

"Are you okay, Shego?" Drakken demanded, sounding angry in his concern.

_No fuck, I'm not! I'm messed up, that's what I am!_

"I... I... fucked up, Doctor D."

"What do you mean?" Shego winced at the tone of his voice and this time Eddie sneaked a look at the blue man. Drakken wished he wasn't as deaf as he was now. An occupational hazard when you dealt with things that went boom on a regular basis, he'd lost his hearing in one ear and had perhaps seventy percent left in the other. He'd forgotten his self-designed audio amplifier on his nightstand.

"I need... something. Something... I can't... can't get here..."

"Shego... are you telling me... are you on drugs?" Drakken sounded outraged. Eddie slapped his forehead with his hand. Maybe it was a mistake bringing Drakken into this.

"Not drugs, you fucking moron!" the woman snarled. But that flash of temper seemed to deflate whatever energy reserve she'd drawn it from and she hunkered lower in her chair. "It's... it's personal."

Drakken looked up in frustration.

"But-" The scientist stopped and looked at the hand that Eddie had put on his arm. The henchman shook his head. He'd seen this before, and knew Shego was not going to tell them anything. She had already said all she was willing to give up. She wasn't going to say any more.

"Let's get some shut-eye. Tomorrow's going to be a long day." Eddie grasped the man's arm and forced him to his feet.

"Wait, but I'm not-"

"Gosh Doc, you look really wiped. I'm sure you'll feel better when you get up in the morning." Eddie squeezed Drakken's arm for a moment.

"Ow! I-, Ah, yes, yes, I'm quite tired," Drakken said as Eddie dragged him from the hall. "And Shego! Don't worry about the bathrobe. If you ever need an ear... well, not really another ear, but you know... we're an evil family, and we need to-!" The closing door cut off what Drakken was about to say.

The woman gingerly reached out and took the mug with a trembling hand. She had to grasp the cup with both hands, and even then sloshed a bit down her hand, taking the water in feverish gulps.

As the liquid fell in a cooling waterfall down her throat and settled comfortingly in her stomach, the green-hued woman could feel the stress leaving her. Muscles began unknotting themselves, group by group, relief filtering into her in a slow orderly advance. Her thundering heart began to ease, releasing her mind from it's frozen state.

Shego usually had a very healthy respect and appreciation for irony, even when it was directed at herself. The only difference was her response to being on the receiving end. _That_, she did not appreciate. But, what was she going to do now?

She needed to get her act together. But how? She'd already tried dealing with it on her own.

This was something that she couldn't deal with. Tonight just proved that. Her obsession, her addiction to Kim, just wasn't something she could drop on anyone. She needed to get it out of her system. She needed someone to talk to. But who? Who could she trust? Who would understand? She couldn't talk to Eddie or Doctor D. Forget all the other villains.

_When the chips are down, who can you trust?_

The memory of those words was a special kind of pain, but it got her thinking. A plan began to formulate in her brain. One that was just too painful to believe, but to good to ignore.

* ~ * * ~ * * ~ * * ~ * * ~ * * ~ * * ~ * * ~ * * ~ * * ~ *

His eyes snapped open. He wasn't sure what had just happened. It rarely ever happened to him. He'd always been a relatively heavy sleeper. The last time it had happened... His eyes widened. From his sumptuous four pillowed king-sized bed, his eyes scanned the room silently, moving from left, the door to the rest of the building, to right, the window that overlooked the star sparkling harbour. That's what woke him. The window to his fiftieth floor penthouse bedroom was open, the sheer swaying from a slight breeze. This hadn't happened since...

"Sh-shego?"

"Took you long enough." The voice had a quality that he'd never heard before. Even in the worst of their arguments, and the aftermath, he'd never heard such... weariness, resignation. And it sent a pang of avarice through him.

"Gawd, Shego," he forced his voice into a normality that he knew helped when he listened to his clients. "It's..." he glanced at the clock on his beside table. "Fucking _four_ in the morning? What's going on?"

"I-... I... shit. I need to talk to you."

"If you mean like last time, I still have scars, thanks." He crossed his arms. He knew the dance as well as she did. She was going to have to accept his superiority in this field. He could feel her brittleness, like a hound scenting a hare.

"Like you didn't deserve it." A shadow detached itself from a corner, a silhouette that only looked vaguely familiar. "I'm not here to hash out the past, alright?" He looked at the odd sight and then sighed. He reached over and turned on the light on his nightstand before turning back.

"Holy shit!" he reflexively gasped. Shego stood there in a frumpy, powder blue terrycloth bathrobe. She was barefoot. Her hair hung in straggling greasy strands. Her eyes were bruised by sleep deprivation, her usually light green skin was looking... translucent... "What the fuck happened to you? Blue? And a terry robe?"

She sat down, her exhausted weight shifting the bed.

"Keep kicking me and you'll lose the leg." But the drained delivery of her threat worried him more than her normally huffy tone.

"Fine. But you came to me. So if you're gonna be like this, you know the way out." He made a show of fluffing his pillows. He was gambling, sure; but he always played to win, because, hey, he was a winner. Besides, he could smell the kill, as surely as if the prize was already within his predatory teeth. And looking at her hunched body language, he knew he had a reasonable chance of coming out on top.

"I... yeah. Whatever."

"Whatever." It was time. They were playing emotional chicken, just as they had all those years ago. It was the only way they knew how to relate to each other, after all. And the unthinkable happened.

"I... Sorry, Mego. I-" Shego's voice broke and she quickly turned her head away. When she spoke again, her voice was rough and unsteady. "I don't have anyone else to talk to. I really need to talk to you, bro."

"Shego..." He blinked. Shego had never backed down before, and that for some weird reason, scared him deep down. She'd always been the strongest of the siblings, the one most ready to make the winning strategy and flawlessly execute it with ruthless determination. He shook himself and put on his confessor's face. And gave up his dominance. "What's going on, sis?"

Shego was silent for a long moment. The moment stretched into minutes, stretched into about twenty before she stirred again. The purple man knew that patience was a virtue in his profession, and he was the best shrink in town.

"I... I'm fucked up, bro." there she paused. Mego stayed silent. There were times to speak, and times to wait. "I'm.... having... dreams... nightmares. I can't concentrate. I'm thinking... all the time... fuck. I can't even talk about it right." She sighed. "I had a nightmare tonight. Turned my room into another nine-eleven. Haven't had 'em since... well, you know."

"Yeah." Mego remembered that; it was one of the times that he regretted his amazing memory capacity. Those weren't great times. It was what drove them apart, split up the great Team Go. Cut their efficiency by half, when she'd left. Then he started. "Wait. You don't mean-"

"Yeah. I'm falling... I've fallen... in...l-" She choked on the word. She couldn't say it. She couldn't. She swore she'd never, ever. "And I can't... deal with it the same way."

"What do you mean? Couldn't you-"

"No." She cut him off. "That's what I'm saying. It's not possible." she chuckled, a strange self-depreciating sound. "Or rather, it's because it is Possible..."

"Uh, sis..." the thin purple psychologist gave her a look. "That doesn't make sense..."

"It's her. Princess. Pumpkin. Cupcake. Miss Priss. Sweetheart. Kimmie." At the litany of nicknames, Mego's eyebrows climbed higher with each one. His eyes bulged at the last one.

"Oh my god. You're in love with Kim Possible? You! Villainess extraordinare! Scourge of forty nations! Most wanted woman alive!" He couldn't have been more flattened if a comet had fell on him... well it had. "And... uh... does she... I mean..."

"Yeah. That's the worst part, she says so. I said I'd never get involved... not after,... you know... but I'm in too deep, Meegs. I dream about her all the time, can't keep my mind off her. And when it's night, I have nightmares." Mego was silent. He was still grappling with the idea of his sister having fallen head over heels for a teenaged superhero. And he knew, that after that... incident... she'd sworn to never fall in love. Silly, he thought back then, and even now. But she was his sister, and she was hurting.

"I haven't seen her for four weeks. Four fucking weeks! I can't call her. You know why. And she hasn't even asked me to change. But I worry... I mean, what if she gets tagged in a mission and comes back in a casket? Or she gets smeared all over a tarmac or captured and... and... besides, I don't know if she will just accept things as they are... And if it gets out, my reps going to be shot. I won't be able to protect her, her family, or myself. I don't want to end up like..."

"Like Hego? Yeah." Mego thought about it. He ruthlessly crushed the small part of him that was still screaming _Oh my fucking God! My sister is fucking hot for Kim fucking Possible!_ "Sheegs, you're all over the place. Why don't you tell me about those nightmares."

Shego nodded. She started speaking. Mego took mental notes. The allusions. The metaphors. The symbolisms. When she wound down, he thought for a moment.

"The best thing for you to do is either cut her off or change your life. You obviously feel some sort of conflict with your past and your present. You've always been afraid of being weak, Sheegs, and you always said that love was the worst weakness. You know where I stand on that. But you either open up to the girl, or you cut her off. It'll save you both a lot of pain if you aren't going to be deep with her."

The raven-haired beauty sat silently for a moment. She sighed.

"I don't know if I can, Meegs. I mean, I've been at this shit for years. I've always kept things to myself, 'cept maybe for you, 'cause you get it. Between you and that blue twinkle-toes, you've got your head screwed on right." She sighed. "Shit. I don't know what to do."

"Fuck that shit, Sheegs. You know what you have to do, what you want to do. You're just too scared shitless to do it. Just do it."

"What the fuck do you know, Tiny?"

"Hey, don't shit down my back because you know I'm right. The great Shego's always done whatever she wants to do, come hell of high water. You know it'll get out sooner or later. So fuck the rep. Fuck the villains or GJ. You've got to be honest with yourself; it's all or nothing, Sheegs. You go in half assed, and you'll just fuck yourself and Kim up even more than if you cut it off right away."

Shego was stunned. She didn't know what to say for a moment. He was right. That was the way she'd always lived her life. She'd cut herself off from Hego as he went over the deep end and made it clear to Mego to watch out for the twins. She'd never cared what others thought. Why had she started now?

Because of Kim. She'd built up her walls, banking on her reputation as the stone cold bitch, but even before she knew it, Kim had sown love into the mortar of isolation, and the blooms were beginning to bring a spring into her life, cracking her loneliness and self-accepted solitude. So... it really was in for a penny, in for a pound, huh?

Abruptly she stood up. Mego could sense the shift in her from her posture and sharply exact motion. He smiled. She was going to owe him, and he was going to milk it for every drop. Patience. Now was not the time.

"Get some shut eye and tell Kurt 'hi' for me." She headed for the window.

"It's Karen. Kurt was so two years ago. You gonna be back for Easter?"

"What after seven years? Dunno. Not likely."

"Well, get some clothes. Terry cloth is so not you."

"Yeah." She paused at the window sill for a moment. "Thanks, Meegs."

And then, she was gone.

* ~ * * ~ * * ~ * * ~ * * ~ * * ~ * * ~ * * ~ * * ~ * * ~ *

Her new sense of purpose calmed her. Eddie and Drakken thought the worst was over. The henchmen began to relax around her again. She no longer chafed at the blue scientist's insistence at the inventory check, and she got back to teaching the henchmen. She was all ready to do what she needed to do. She needed to either get Kim into a place that would set her heart at ease or get her out of her life before everything went down in literal flames. Still, it took her a week to work up the courage to see the girl. As ready as she ever would be.

Until she saw the DVD the girl had tucked underneath her window.


	17. Hanging by a Moment Lyrics

Hanging by a Moment  
by Jason Wade  
Performed by Lifehouse

Desperate for changing  
Starving for truth  
I'm closer to where I started  
Chasing after you

I'm falling even more in love with you  
Letting go of all I've held onto  
I'm standing here until you make me move  
I'm hanging by a moment here with you

Forgetting all I'm lacking  
Completely incomplete  
I'll take your invitation  
You take all of me now...

I'm falling even more in love with you  
Letting go of all I've held onto  
I'm standing here until you make me move  
I'm hanging by a moment here with you

I'm living for the only thing I know  
I'm running and not quite sure where to go  
And I don't know what I'm diving into  
Just hanging by a moment here with you

There's nothing else to lose  
There's nothing else to find  
There's nothing in the world  
That can change my mind  
There is nothing else  
There is nothing else  
There is nothing else

Desperate for changing  
Starving for truth  
I'm closer to where I started  
Chasing after you...

I'm falling even more in love with you  
Letting go of all I've held onto  
I'm standing here until you make me move  
I'm hanging by a moment here with you

I'm living for the only thing I know  
I'm running and not quite sure where to go  
And I don't know what I'm diving into  
Just hanging by a moment here with you

Just hanging by a moment (here with you)  
Hanging by a moment (here with you)  
Hanging by a moment here with you


	18. Chapter Nine: Hanging by a Moment

Disclaimers:  
Kim Possible © Disney  
Hanging by a Moment © Lifehouse

A/N: Lily is an OC originally created by and © Love Robin. You may have run into her in REDS as Kim's Assistant. Thanks to LR for allowing me to have her in my fic.

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**Hanging by a Moment**  
by sweetPixiesmile

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"Good to see you again Miss Possible!" the pilot shouted from the open cockpit door as the three teens climbed into the troop compartment of the stealthed hover assault carrier. Kim slid over on the bench and leaned through the door to shake hands with the men in bulky green jumpsuits. Their raised sun-visors of their helmets glinted in the pyramidal pools of light cast by the parking lot fixtures in the rapidly darkening evening air.

"That was some work you did for us on our virgin flight," the co-pilot said.

"No big, Major Kirk. I'm glad I was able to get that extra oxygen tank to you in time after your controls froze."

"And also got our controls unfrozen. Just sit back, Miss Possible, and we'll take you on a nice smooth flight."

"This time around anyway," added the pilot.

"Did you get the coordinates, Major James?" Kim asked, eager to be away.

"Sure did, Miss. Just sit back and relax. We'll be there faster than a squirrel on a nut."

"Thanks again!" Kim smiled and sat back as the men waved a loose salute.

"Alright, Team Possible, next stop three, three point seven, eight, seven, three, niner, six North, by one, one, seven point eight, niner, eight, niner, three, three West. Stay webbed until we hit cruising speed; that'll be four kicks in the gut. Major Kirk will turn on the red light when we're ten minutes out. That's the "ready" light. When you're ready, hit the green button. When the red light blinks, Lieutenant Tiberius back there," Major James gestured to the tall dark-haired man in the green flight suit near the back of the compartment, who waved, "will open the tailgate; that's your two minute warning. If you need more time, speak to the Lieutenant. Alright?" Kim gave the universal sign of "okay", her thumb and index describing a neat round circle, the other fingers splayed wide.

"Alright, let's chase the sun, baby!"

The co-pilot flashed a thumbs-up and closed the cockpit door. Kim sat back and drew the mesh harness across her body, securing herself tightly in the strange tacky webbing. The pitch of the steady whine of the hover foils rose smoothly; Kim could feel the gradual pressure of momentum as the plane lifted to it's cruising altitude. After a few minutes the steady whine of the vertical take off and landing turbines were replaced by the explosive roar of the afterburner. Kim felt the kick in sudden speed. The sensation was mimicked several more times until the carrier broke through the fourth sound barrier.

Team Possible sat in the drop compartment, designed for three four-man fire squads. The tailgate was closed in an upward slant at the back. Securely webbed in across from her was Ron. Sitting beside him, her wildly pink bangs sharply contrasting against her bobbed raven black hair was a skinny girl with a rakish dark blue eye patch. The girl was leaning toward the blond and speaking into the boy's ear.

Kim suppressed an urge to smile and frown at the same time.

When Ron accompanied her to Global Justice to meet the agent who was being attached to Team Possible, she thought they'd be saddled with gruff, no-nonsense, middle-aged operative. Yet when Betty had ushered the agent in, it was this tall, lanky, stone-faced slip of a girl. Kim shook the solemn girl's hand; Betty introduced her as simply "Lily". The brunette had pulled Kim aside as Ron introduced Lily to Rufus. The girl's stoic features had not changed, but her visible ice blue eye had lit up with distinct pleasure as Rufus preened before her and stuck out his hand for a handshake.

"She's just like you, Kimberly. She's way beyond any of the Junior field agents, but I need a relatively safe environment for her to get some experience," the woman explained in a low voice, leaning close. Kim's doubts must have shown at the time. "You can spar with her a bit and see."

"Well," Kim hedged. The girl was three years younger, yet already taller than her by about four inches; still she was well short of Betty's cool six-foot-two.

_Probably'll have the boobs to match too. Some girls get all the luck._

"Will she take my orders?" Kim asked, noting the sullen glance the girl sent her way, watching her and Betty.

"She better," the head of Global Justice murmured. "You'll be grading her performance after each mission. I'll give you the forms."

Afterwards, Kim had sparred with the fifteen year old and had been pleasantly surprised by the girl's quickness, her hard, decisive movements and her longer reach. Kim had taken four of five bouts, with her superior strength and speed, but two of the calls had been very close. The girl's good eye had blazed like a clear sky at noon.

Since then, Lily had appeared at Kim's doorstep each morning with a chic formfitting backpack full of mission gear. She wore blues and charcoal greys as if she were still in Global Justice uniform. She didn't speak much at first, but after their fifth mission together, where Kim had helped evacuate a tiny Mexican village and then stopped a mudslide with a fast acting plaster powder in her pack, the girl had begun talking to the team, although to the hero with some reluctance. With Lily showing up at the Possible home so often, it was inevitable for Anne to invite the shy, soprano-voiced girl for meals. After an embarrassing incident of denials accompanied by a loudly gurgling stomach, the dual-colour haired teen had acquiesced to Anne's gently implacable insistence. She'd started eating at Kim's house; Ron had joined them several times and the young girl had become less shy around the goofy blond. Ever the jokester, Ron was able to use some of his well-worn, practised jokes on the girl, forcing titters of laughter from her lips. It was a good thing Ron was using the titanium pleated belt Kim had given him for their half-a-versary, before their mutually amenable break-up, so the girl had not seen her best-friend's boxer style underwear.

Still, Kim could not figure out if the girl liked her or not. At times Lily acted somewhat cold and aloof; yet in the excitement of the moment she would joke and smile and laugh right along with them. Kim mentally shrugged. The girl had performed well in all the missions, but this one, tonight's, was going to be different. She began checking her pockets before dipping her hand into the small hidden pocket on her brown leather leg-pouch. She pulled out a small card and frowned nervously at the flowing script beside a generous black lip print.

_Princess, we need to talk._

She sucked in her cheeks in a grousing pout. The words, neither playful or informative, sounded too serious, and reminded the hero when she was dumped by the local hottie, Josh Mankey, before he was whisked away to a fine arts college on a special scholarship. She thought back to when they'd gotten the call from Wade.

They were well into dinner when the Kimmunicator had beeped. Anne was serving a slice of brain loaf to an incredulous Lily. Ron, Tim and Jim were already shovelling spoonfuls into their mouths.

"So Lily," Anne said, making conversation. "You work for Global Justice?"

"Yes, ma'am." The girl was attempting to hide her soft singsong voice by forcing it to deepen. It simply made her sound gruff.

"I'm sorry, you just seem so young! Like Kimmie, when she first started saving the world."

"Not at all, ma'am. I'm in the junior division. Doctor Director asked me to take a spot on Team Possible that was open." Anne lifted her eyes to Kim, who simply shrugged and she took a bite of her father's amazing mashed potatoes.

_Beep Beep Be-Beep._

Kim quickly swallowed and left the table, scooping up the chiming device. She stepped out of the kitchen to take the call.

"What's the sitch, Wade?"

"Found 'em!"

Kim's cheeks flushed a bright red. She knew exactly who he meant and she could not suppress the earthshaking longing and fierce excitement that was suddenly coursing through her.

"Shego" Her soft, yearning voice was already conjuring an alluring barrage of mental images of what could happen. This would be the first time they'd met in their official roles as hero and villain. She shivered in anticipation. Kim blinked, realizing Wade was speaking to her.

"... out on the Westcoast. Power spikes are off the grid. They tried to filter their power syphon trail through a bunch of places, but I got em. I also spotted those funny neutrino traces that mark Drakken's stealthed hoverpod and it's tracking straight for the epicentre of those power pulses. And get this, they're coming out of the Crystal Cathedral in Garden Grove. Ride's vectoring in on the MTC in twenty."

"Lily? More tea?" came her father's muffled voice from the kitchen.

"Thanks, Doctor Possible," came the soft, shy reply.

"Thanks Wade!"

"No problemo, Kim. Oh, I dropped off the new and improved battlesuit in your closet. I took out the speed feature, but I totally amped the power; You should be able to level a whole city block if you needed to. Literally."

"Wade, you totally rock. Schematics on route?"

"You got it." Kim smiled a heartfelt thank you and disconnected the link.

"Ron, Lily! We've got a mission, get ready!" Kim called out as she dashed up to her room to change, pulling off her three quarter length, embroidered shirt as she hopped up the stairs, taking two steps at a time. In the converted attic that had been her room since she was ten, she shimmied out of her slim fit corduroys. Only one thought illuminated her mind as she reached into her closet and put her hand on a hidden scanner.

_Shego, I'm coming for you!_

A hidden, armour-reinforced panel slid open to reveal a pristine white bodysuit with electric blue trim. Kim took down the battlesuit. It had returned a few days ago, after having some strange problems corrected that had resulted from Dementor's attempts to use it. She quickly slipped on the tight fitting skin-hugging nanite matrix; it was a gift to Wade from the researchers of the Titan project but much smoother. Where the Titan Project was a battlesuit that materialized as the wearer's autonomic response to stress kicked in, Kim's had foregone the stealth feature in favour for features that played to her strengths. Kim dashed down to the landing. Lily, who always wore her Global Justice jumpsuit under her street clothes stood by the front door.

"All ready?" Ron strolled into the landing in the old mission gear: black long-sleeves and khaki cargo pants. Rufus popped out of the leg pocket and gave a small thumbs-up.

"Hunh, hunh, ready!" he squeaked. Lily simply nodded.

"Our ride's going to meet us at the Mall, so we'd better get moving."

"Let's roll, bay-bee! Team Possible gonna save the day.... again!"

"Bye, Mom, Dad, we'll be back as soon as we can!"

"Be safe, Kimmie-cub, and get that villain!" James called out.

"I will Dad!" _Oh, I will._

"So where exactly are we going, KP?" Ron asked, rolling along next to Kim as they hurried down the sidewalk toward the Middleton Mall.

"The Crystal Cathedral, in the 'Oh-See', California."

"Cali-forn-eye-ay? Alright! Can we hit the beach? I wanna try out Wade's new all-terrain boards." Ron spread his arms as if balancing on a surf board.

"I dunno Ron, it'll be after ten by the time we get there."

"Aww man! Those boards are sweet."

"Well, if we have time, maybe."

"Cool. Lil' did you bring your board?"

"Lily?" Kim turned to the silent and somewhat surly presence on her other side. The girl, in a tight fitting dark blue hoodie and black slacks, sauntered along with a smooth catlike gait. Kinda like Shego.

_Wow, everything reminds me of her!_

"How about we use them during the jump?" the girl said, her blue eye glinting. Kim smirked, accepting the challenge. She wasn't sure how she had rubbed the girl the wrong way, but Betty had assigned the teen to Team Possible. The girl's sullen attitude had been almost as bad as Will Du's last performance. Not quite hostile,... more like... Ron had said, "simmering on the down low." Kim was thinking he was right, then mentally shrugged. If the girl didn't let things get in the way of her mission performance, she wasn't going to make a fuss.

_Beep Beep Be-Beep._

Kim raised her arm and spoke into the wrist Kimmunicator.

"Go Wade." Recognizing her voice, a tiny three dimensional image of the rotund teen flickered to life above a small round disk embedded into her left cuff.

"Ride's going to meet you just outside the mall's two-'ehf' entrance. Majors James and Kirk in the experimental hypersonic VTOL carrier 'Intrepid'."

"Spankin'. Hey, nice three-'dee' Kimmunicator upgrade."

"I take it you like?"

"Oh yeah... wait, 'Intrepid'? Freak ice storm, frozen controls, was about to go into space... during its first test flight, right?"

"Great memory Kim, that was like two years ago. I'll beep you again when you get close. I'm going to see what I can find out about this place, or what Drakken's doing."

"Let's get going, don't want to be late for our pickup!" Kim called behind her as she started to jog. In an instant, Lily was jogging easily beside her. Kim offered up a smile to the younger girl.

"Hey, wait up!" Ron called out from behind.

They hurried toward the Middleton Town Centre.

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"So. You're sure you gave him _**-all-**_ the chocolates?"

"Yes."

"Including the limited edition, jalapeño flavoured Toblerone®?"

"Yes!" The blue man put a hand on his chest with a wounded expression. "Shego, I'm hurt that you thought I wouldn't be able to get Brotherson to talk."

After weeks of fruitless searching for clues on just who had stolen Drakken's nanotick plans, Shego had finally suggested that they pay for the information from the underground's most infamous information hound: Big Daddy Brotherson. The man made so much money from information brokering, that he owned his own island which had it's own industry, army and air force. Governments had a love-hate relationship with the obese man; they paid his exorbitant fees for information, all the while, knowing that he held secrets about their own countries. Secrets that would inevitably be leaked should Brotherson meet an unnatural demise. Drakken had insisted that he go by himself. So while the man had gone off to the tropical island, Shego and Eddie had made the assault preparations.

They were flying the large hovercarrier tonight. Eddie and the troops were in the carrier bay in the back; Shego sat with Drakken in the cockpit. She kept an eye on the true horizon, the quickly setting sun and the compass as she flew the pod.

"I wasn't the one who got thrown into the crocodile pool the last time for filching a snack from his lunch pile."

"I was hungry! And he just sat there, stuffing his face with all that yummy candy! It was a long ride down to that godforsaken tropical hellhole."

"Mm-hmm, a tropical hellhole that charges two hundred bucks a plate," she deadpanned. "A godforsaken pleasure island that I had to haul your scrawny ass out of."

"Well, I did everything right this time, Shego!"

"Tell me again exactly what he said." The green-tinted woman forced down a growl, replacing it with a sigh.

"'The man you seek can be found at..." Drakken stopped as he rummaged through his pockets with his gloved hands. "Aha!" he exclaimed as he pulled a crumpled piece of paper out. "Thirty-three degrees, forty-seven minutes and fifteen seconds North by one hundred and seventeen, fifty-three minutes, fifty-six seconds West.'"

"That's it?"

"That's all he said," Drakken shrugged.

"And where is this...?"

"Garden Grove, California! We are going to the 'Oh-See', bay-bee!" Drakken cheered. Then he dropped into a wide-eyed grin. "And then that interloper will feel the fruits of my genius," he gloated, patting the Extremely Large Deathray sitting beside him.

"Didn't know you swung that way, Doctor D," Shego smirked.

"What? No! I meant that he was going to taste... I mean, I was going to give him... Arggh! You know what I mean!" Drakken huffed, crossing his arms. A wry smirk flitted across the thief's dark lips.

_Too easy._

Shego gripped the control stick, ruthlessly forcing her own roiling nervousness back down. She knew she wasn't normally this snippy pre-operation, but she was going to do something that gave her a stomach dropping, fluttery feeling in her chest and odd tingles in the soles of her feet. Something she'd never have thought would happen in a million years. Something, she thought could turn ugly, real fast. But it was smart. Wasn't it?

She was going to break up with Kim Possible.

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Kim could feel the plane still decelerating when the red light came on with a loud buzz. She had been fidgety the entire interminable flight. The excitement had not sapped her strength; instead, it had the opposite effect. She had attempted some meditations that Ron had learnt at Yamanouchi, attempting to relax herself and bring herself into a calm alignment. Yet each time she made an attempt, a single-worded, swirling mantra tore apart the thin veil of tranquillity.

_Shego..... Shego...._

Ron had glanced at his friend several time during the flight. Kim knew he was worried for the same reasons she was, and was working actively to keep Lily engaged to keep the girl from asking any embarrassing or intrusive questions. He was regaling the girl about a search for Monkey Fist that had him flying all over the world with Yori, the attractive Japanese Ninja he had met when he'd been transferred briefly to the secret ninja school in Japan on a student exchange program. Kim noticed Lily's eye narrow briefly each time the kunoichi's name was mentioned.

The red light by the cockpit door flared to life and a loud buzzer filled the small space. Kim stood as the loud buzzing ceased, Ron and Lily following suit. Kim checked Ron's gear as he inspected Lily's, who blushed as he knelt and tugged on the thigh straps of her parachute. Lily took her turn, carefully checking Kim's gear over, but eventually gave a reluctant thumbs up.

"Ron, Kimmunicator?"

"Sure," he said rummaging in his pockets for the device.

"Please and thank you."

He pulled it from his back pocket and handed it to the hero. With a few button presses, a small three dimensional image of of the oddly shaped building appeared.

"Let's review the plan. Wade's tapped into the cathedral's camera system and says the goons are spread out along the floor of the sanctuary, a few on the triangular side balconies, a few at the multi-terraced choir loft and pipe organ behind the stage. They seem to be looking for something. Drakken's with the men on the ground. Shego's on the lighting catwalk somewhere on overwatch. Ron, Lily, you guys round up the goons; you come in low, through the West doors. Give me a couple of minutes to engage Shego."

"I don't see why I can't take her," Lily grumbled. Kim forced down a sigh.

"Because she and I are pretty fairly matched. I mean we're even; and no offence, Lily, if I can take four of five bouts from you sans battlesuit, don't even think about it. She's crazy strong, and my battlesuit neutralizes that advantage. So if you don't have a self-healing, attribute enhancing armour, she'd finish you off in seconds. I don't want to have to go back to Doctor Director to explain why her operative got hurt. If my fight with her gets out of hand, we're likely to take it outside. If we disappear, just hand the goons over to the authorities; I'll meet-up with you later." Kim turned and slapped her hand on the green spring-loaded button.

The red light began to blink as the buzzer went off again. Kim turned off the display and handed the device back to Ron, who pocketed it as he picked up a four foot long board that was black. Six inches right down the middle of its twelve inch width was a wide red stripe. Lily picked up a similar coloured on, except the stripe a dark charcoal grey on dark blue. Kim's was white with an electric blue stripe.

The lieutenant stepped up to the control panel beside the tailgate, clicking the safety tether that hung on the wall to his flight harness. The teens filed up as the he opened the panel and pressed a button. With a loud whirling sound, the tailgate began to open ponderously. Ron edged up to the edge of the tailgate, put down his board and "clicked in" the magnetic soles of his mission shoes to the board, Lily and Kim doing the same, but leaving one leg free. As Ron clicked in, the board elongated from two feet to four, widening from 8 inches to fourteen; three cylinders emerged from behind his back foot.

The wind whistled loudly, as the jump bay doors opened, the sound of the rushing wind becoming a deafening roar.

Lieutenant Tiberius checked his panel and then flipped a switch. The light turned green. He pointed at Ron and then pointed out the gate. Ron hopped his board onto the ramp, then with a whoop, slid out out into the cool evening air. Lily followed close behind with a tight feral grin, with Kim bringing up the rear with with a manic laugh. She flipped, her legs rotating forward and around. She spread her arms and arched her back to stop the tumble. As she stabilized, she brought her feet down and depressed a hidden throttle beneath her lead foot. The three cylinders on the back of her board roared to life.

_Here I come, Shego. Wait for me!_

* ~ * * ~ * * ~ * * ~ * * ~ * * ~ * * ~ * * ~ * * ~ * * ~ *

"Eddie."

"Yeah Boss?"

"Over by the pulpit, do a scan."

"Gotcha, Boss."

"Shego!"

"Relax, Doc. Yelling into the com's only going to give everyone else a headache. And before you ask, I'm up on the lighting catwalk."

"What are you doing up there?"

"Keeping an eye out for a certain little hero and her doofus sidekick."

"Well, alright. But if anyone sees anything, let me know right away! I have a very big ray gun I need to test!"

"You were right, Boss. There's traces of nanites, but looks two weeks old. We've missed 'im."

"What? Brotherson's information is useless! And to think how much we paid for that Toblerone!"

"Not really, Doc. If we can find some traces we can... Wait! I see.... something.... in the sky... Think we're gonna have company. Boys, set up to receive. Stand by for a quick getaway."

* ~ * * ~ * * ~ * * ~ * * ~ * * ~ * * ~ * * ~ * * ~ * * ~ *

Shego paced along the catwalk, her hands clasped behind her back, her green-tinted face pensive, her glowing almond shaped eyes flitting back and forth. She searched the sky. She knew her Princess loved grand entrances as much as she herself.

Light footsteps echoed behind her.

"'Bout time ya got here Princess," she said as she turned to face the hero.

_Good. That's good. Keep up the 'tude, you can do this. Damn that battlesuit just hugs in all the right places, donnit?_

Kim shivered at the rough and ready nuances of her lover's voice. Her eyes shone, a bright captivating sea-green. Her body continued to quiver, tremors of emotion running rampant through her, an eagerness waiting to be released.

_Omigawd, she's so hot in her catsuit...why didn't I see this before?_

"Sheeeeegooo...." The girl's sultry breathless rendition of her name brought a smirk to the woman's dark lips.

There was a sudden, loud explosion below, as two figures blazed into the cavernous interior of the building. Henchmen cried out as the two flipped off their roaring, fire-tailed boards. Far below, she could hear Eddie's bellowing barrel-chested voice as he directed the henchmen against Ron and the new girl.

"Who's the skirt? Needed a new sidekick?"

_Good. Snarky, aggressive. Keep the hero off balance. Gawd she looks great._

"Betty's got me training her, but I think she's here to keep an eye on me."

_I want... no. I __**-need-**__ to get close to her._

"And why would that one-eyed civil servant want to do that?"  
_  
Wait, what? Why would Betty need to keep an eye on Kimmie?_

"Because I told her you're my girlfriend," was Kim's nonchalant reply.

Shego's glowing eyes widened in shock. In those few words, she felt the weight of the hero's emotions, her deep seated trust and selfless devotion fall crashing on her, wiping away her determination. Kim had literally and figuratively stuck her neck out under the scrutiny and possibly the censure of one of the premiere international crime fighting organizations by claiming where her heart lay. Shego shook her head, dashing away the trembling tickle in her eyes, her heart thundering painfully in her chest. A dark green, greedy gaze watched the luxuriously dark hair play back and forth.

_How can she do this? How does she do it?_

"Kim..." she managed a tremulous sigh. A brilliantly gentle smile lit the sanctuary as the white and blue suited girl dropped into an aggressive forward stance. A blue glow began to emanate from the red-head's hands.

"Show me," the hero smirked, confidently motioning with her raised hand. Shego grinned. With a fiery flourish, she flicked her hands wide, her claws igniting, twin coronas of green flame. They stood motionless, the faint sounds of crashes and shouting below meaningless as they faced each other in the instant of now. Nothing mattered but the longing reflected in the other's eyes.

A perfect, defining moment.

A sliver of time encompassing the essence of their connection.

With a snap, they charged across the suspended catwalk.

Shego's flaming claws whirled and slashed, trailing streamers of flame that illuminated the space between them. Kim's brightly glowing electric blue hands moved in perfect synchronicity, flicking the woman's strikes away. Her red hair wove complex patterns in flawless harmony to the green fire as she ducked, dipped and whirled.

The catsuited woman moved into a powerful two handed claw attack that hammered down. Kim slipped in close, the woman's arms falling on either side of her lithe form. In a split second, she placed a kiss on the woman's nose and giggled as she deftly slid to the side, hands gliding sensually across the woman's stomach as the teen swung around her. She bent and gripped the thief from behind, pulling their bodies close; the sapphire lines along her suit sparkled as she lifted the surprised thief. She inhaled deeply, savouring the musky scent of the brunette's hair even as she hoisted and fell backwards, using the centrifugal force to accelerate the backward slam. Shego reached out with her hands as her centre of gravity whipped over the girl and planted them on the catwalk to prevent being driven into the metal grill. Her momentum came to a bone shaking halt and hero's locked hands trembled. The thief swung her feet over in time with the jarring stop in momentum with all her strength, breaking the teen's grip around her waist and began a long series of backflips, flicking as many speeding plasma bolts as she could. Kim leaped onto the railing, kicked off the support wire only to kick off the railing on the opposite side as the wild flaming darts scored red-hot runnels and sparks where they struck. The hero continued juking off the railing and catwalk support wires, pursuing the plasma launching woman. Glowing green eyes watched the motion and sway of the girl's efficient form with a surreal pleasure.

They were quickly approaching the end of the catwalk where a ladder lead up to a metallic maintenance hatch. Shego glanced back ad judged her distance to the ladder. In that moment of inattention Kim came in with a burst of speed that shocked the super-powered woman who caught the motion. As her black boots came down in a final flip, Shego crouched. Her leg corded muscles bunched and released a coil of immense energy that sent her flying directly up at the trapdoor twenty feet above. The tremendous launch caused the catwalk to shatter, but the red-head was undeterred as she leaped across the two metre gap, her own section collapsing away under her feet, and literally sprinted up the ladder. Shego drew back a fist and flared the corona surrounding it, swinging hard into the trap door as it came into range.

An enormous green-tinged explosion rippled the shatter-proof tempered glass as a green flame shot heavenward through the flying debris. A glowing, red-haired, blazing blue streak pursued closely into the night air. A black booted foot lashed out even as slim white arms gripped the foot and used the transferring energy to flip the girl into a whirling bicycle kick. Shego absorbed the roaring shock with an arm and added the power to a spinning backhand. Kim grasped the forearm, using it to counter-rotate into a triple kick that the thief pushed aside. They reached the apex of their flight and hung motionless in the air for a moment, Kim upside down, Shego nearly horizontal.

Two perfectly matched storms.

A paired set of harmoniously violent whirlwinds.

A grinning mirror image.

Shego kicked out with all her strength even as Kim swung in with a crackling blue fist. Sparks flared in all directions as a shock wave of power rippled across the glass roof of the cathedral.

Black and white, two forms landed lightly on the white painted cross hatched metal framework. The sea of glass continued to heave and warp beneath of the two women. Shego rose from her crouch and cocked her hip, putting a lazy claw on her waist. Kim stood up, straight and proud, the power lines on her suit chasing blue waves of energy along the trim.

"You are something else," Kim grinned.

"Right back at'cha!" Shego smirked back. Below, they could hear loud crashes. The hero glanced down. "Looks like my guys are really starting to clean the floor with yours. Ready to give it up?" She looked back at the green-tinted woman. The thief was already sprinting across the roof of the Crystal Cathedral.

"Only if you catch me first, Pumpkin!" she called over her shoulder, trailing an uncharacteristic giggle. Kim laughed as she followed Shego's wake.

The comet-powered beauty sprinted across the glass, her cracking stone heart lending her a fleet lightness she had never felt before. She laughed as she crisscrossed along the glass. Behind her pursued her lover, a grinning girl that shone through the dark loneliness of her life, a mire that she had not even recognized until the hero had come along

Shego was quickly approaching the two hundred and thirty-six foot bell tower, a sparkling series of rising triangular prisms that glinted in the night sky. Shego shot across the fifty yards that separated the shining bell tower from the main building, a blazing green comet.

Kim grinned, sprinting across the glass, flashing her left arm forward. With an explosive hiss, a grappling hook whipped out of her wrist and latched onto one of the lower spires. She could see the thief flitting between the steel triangles, her laughter floating down to her, gossamer touches of gentle coaxing. She felt renewed by it, a powerful, quiet energy lending her strength as she leaped after, their paths weaving and crossing, the blue sparkles of her battlesuit pursuing the trailing plasma.

The thief reached the apex of the tower a moment before Kim. An overpowering fervour was running rampant through her. She'd never thought that such competition could be so much.... _fun_. Throughout all her heists, her hero and villain days, she never expected to connect with anyone quite like this. It was a breathless, fathomless height that had ascended within her, a luminous orbit she trembled within. It was a tingling... foreplay, she couldn't describe it any other way, that she had never before experienced, and it frightened as much as it exhilarated.

Kim landed, two feet away from her, a glorious grin mirroring her own.

"Are we playing tag, Sheeeego...?" the hero purred at her. Shego flushed at the sudden roaring desire that the girl elicited from the simple act of purring her name. The thief felt positively playful under those deep green eyes.

"How about this, Pumpkin," she drawled, "Whomever takes the first fall gets to chose where we meet next." Kim cocked her head, tracing her own jawline with a coquettish look.

"First fall?" she wondered aloud. In a flash, Shego appeared behind her, pressing in close. Even without the touch, Kim could feel the tantalizing heat of the woman's skin, the tickling arousal of her breath as the woman spoke softly into her ear.

"First orgasm, Cupcake," the thief whispered.

Kim blushed one of those hypnotic, full body glows; her chest heaved with sudden excitement and longing as claw tipped fingers ghosted down her flanks, stuttering her breath even as her mind whirled in a heavenly haze of stimulation. The crimson colour of her cheeks was entrancing, so intoxicating that the thief was almost caught flat footed as the girl whirled with a double hand-blade and elbow combination. Kim flowed smoothly into a series of well practised strikes.

It was one that Shego was familiar with, and she knew it's purpose. If she did not block, Kim would connect, but as she continued to counter, it would draw her more and more out of her centre. The girl's attacks were faster than she'd ever encountered.

_Gawd, she's fast!_

One hand flashed through her defence. But instead of delivering a crippling blow to a pressure point, the pads of the girl's fingers caressed the sensitive area. Shego's body shuddered as she fought the thrilling sensation, her hand snaking past the girl's arm, her claws scoring across the hero's bicep. Kim bit her lip as the woman's hand gently gripped her ribs and spun her, the woman moving in an opposite orbit, drawing searing lines of passion along her back. The girl revelled in it even as she turned, slipping low beneath a crossing claw attack.

Back and forth, Kim and Shego wove their desire, a mingling of all their skill and sensuality. Rapturous touches replaced hard blows, incandescent kisses replacing throws. No nook was left unstimulated. No skin left unattended. After several minutes, they broke apart, gasping heavily, their bodies throbbing with desire.

Kim could not believe what was happening, what they were doing. The violence of their previous encounters had been replaced with a driving need to touch, to caress and stroke. Her mind was fogged by an conflicted objective even though she was determined to see its conclusion. She knew she was losing, her tingling erogenous zones all but disintegrating her will to fight.

Shego's mind was as high as a cloudless day, the clarity of victory in her mind. Shego smirked, a stirring look that frayed at the girl's struggle for control. She was a master at foreplay, not matter what that might be. Granted, Kim had talent to spare, but Shego knew she had superior autonomic control. She had trained with the best meditation masters to control her body, suppress her biofeedback. Although her own face was flushed and the dull ache between her legs floated near her awareness, she shoved those feelings aside. Kim, on the other hand was literally gasping from the sensations she'd been causing. It was time to bring out her coup de grace.

She leaped at the teen, her arms wide. Kim, taken back by the unexpected manoeuvre, moved in for a hold. Shego ducked beneath the girl's grasping arms, drove her shoulders into the overbalanced girl's ankles. The hero fell heavily, breaking her fall with outstretched arms. In a flash, the woman sat down on the teen's shoulder blades, forcing her down. Kim attempted to twist, but only succeeded in being pinned against the metal surface of the bell tower by the woman's weight. She didn't have enough room or leverage to lift herself. Calmly, the comet-powered woman trapped her arms beneath her legs, sitting down hard, mashing Kim's breasts into the cool metal, sending distracting pools of sensation into the girl.

"You're mine, Princess," Shego grinned. Her hands free, she began to stroke the girl's bottom, eliciting a startled gasp from the girl, followed by a low moan.

_I'm losing, gonna lose, oh gawd!_

Kim could not hold in the groan as the woman's hand worked, massaging a deep frenzy of sensations first into her bottom. Her legs would not obey her, the rampaging pleasure collapsing her resistance. She wasn't even sure why she continued to struggle. The metal frosted under her labouring breath. Shego smiled at the plaintive cries her touch was drawing out of the hero. Victory was hers! As the clawed deft fingers converged on the girl's core, Kim knew she had lost, and didn't care. Her legs twitched in anticipation.

"Sheeeego, Sheeego!" she whimpered as the woman began a new, languorous rhythm. Touching, stroking, deliberately coaxing sighs from her lips. Captivating, insistent, driving a wave of quivering, galvanizing passion through her. Kim's entire body began to shiver under the skilled ministrations of the woman's hands.

_Surrender._

The end came upon the hero in a rush, her rapturous cries splitting the night air. The claws continued, drawing her higher and higher, until her voice was hoarse, her mind overheating from the swirling, intense pleasure.

Kim was vaguely aware of the soft lips that pressed against her own, the arms that held her as she came down from the heights to which she had flown. Her eyelids fluttered open, her face so adorable to the woman who held her in a gentle embrace. She found herself lying against the villainess, the green-tinted woman brushing sweat soaked locks from her face. The look on the thief's face was almost foreign to the hero, a poignant, evocative tenderness that suffused her with an indescribable warmth.

"Welcome back, Princess," Shego smiled.

Kim swallowed a few times before she could respond.

"Guess I lost, huh? Not that I feel like I did..."

"Win-win, Cupcake," Shego chuckled. "I'll letcha know where our next jaunt's gonna be. I hate to run, but I hear sirens." The local authorities could be seen, their emergency lights flaring an angry kaleidescope of red and white. Shego touched a button on her left forearm.

"Oh, hey," the red-head asked. A tremor of anxiety swept through her, but she forced herself on. "You said you wanted to talk... what did you want to talk about?" Shego paused for a moment, still and serious.

"Nothing to talk about now," the woman smiled wryly. "We're good."

"When... when can I see you again?" Kim asked. "I don't have any way to reach you."

The woman hesitated, drew a small item from her ankle pouch and pressed a small, hard item into the girl's hand and closed the hero's fingers on it.

"Keep this on you at all times, and I'll find ya. Press it, and I'll know you're looking for me." The villainess sat the hero up before standing up herself. She leaned down over a white and blue shoulder from behind. Kim turned her head and closed her eyes.

The softness of Shego's lips was an indescribable feeling, two hearts shuddering from the tender communication. Eventually, the thief broke the lingering kiss. Shego silently walked to the edge of the bell tower.

"Shego, I love you!" Kim called to her, shivering from the thief's absence. Shego turned back to her.

"I know." With that she leaped off the spire. Kim rushed to the edge to see the woman wave before disappearing into the fast retreating hovercarrier. Kim sighed with a rueful smile. It looked like Drakken hadn't got what he'd been looking for. But she had. Kim watched the light of the hovercarrier disappear before looking down at what the comet-powered beauty had dressed into her hand. It was an ornate, iridescent, dark green metallic dragon broach.

* ~ * * ~ * * ~ * * ~ * * ~ * * ~ * * ~ * * ~ * * ~ * * ~ *

"Ouch! The buffoon must have been working out. My jaw still hurts," Drakken whined. Shego, however was not listening at all. She had failed. She'd failed to call it off. And she felt....

Great.


	19. Upside Down Lyrics

Upside Down  
By Jack Johnson

_Who's to say  
What's impossible  
Well they forgot  
This world keeps spinning  
And with each new day  
I can feel a change in everything  
And as the surface breaks reflections fade  
But in some ways they remain the same  
And as my mind begins to spread its wings  
There's no stoppin' curiosity_

_I wanna turn the whole thing upside down  
I'll find the things they say just can't be found  
I'll share this love I find with everyone  
We'll sing and dance to Mother Nature's song  
I don't want this feeling to go away_

_Who's to say  
I can't do everything  
Well I can try  
And as I roll along I begin to find  
Things aren't always just what they seem_

_I wanna turn the whole thing upside down  
I'll find the things they say just can't be found  
I'll share this love I find with everyone  
We'll sing and dance to Mother Nature's song  
This world keeps spinning and there's no time to waste  
Will it all keep spinning and spinning round and round and_

_Upside down  
Who's to say whats impossible and can't be found  
I don't want this feeling to go away_

_Please don't go away  
Please don't go away  
Please don't go away  
Is this how it's supposed to be  
Is this how it's supposed to be_


	20. Chapter Ten: Upside Down

- KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP -

Disclaimers:

Kim Possible © Disney

Upside Down © Jack Johnson

A/N: Thanks to Lynx Klaw for noticing that the chapter had been incorrectly replaced by the lyrics. Thanks Lynx!

- KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP -

**One Way or Another**

_Chapter Ten: Upside Down _

_by sweetPixiesmile_

Kim was nervous. She was standing at the top of the stairs that descended into the living room from the second floor, feeling each an every flip-flop that her stomach was making. She swallowed convulsively, trying to gather her courage.

Kim was afraid, very afraid. Things that would have most of the world's population running and cowering in terror, she had faced down without even batting an eye. Death rays. Dozens upon dozens of henchmen. Death traps. Mad science mutants. Killer clones. Assassins, mercenaries, ninja, genetically altered animals. Comet-powered beauties. But there was one thing that made her break out in a cold sweat, her hands trembling and clammy with trepidation.

Her parents.

She closed her eyes. She breathed in deeply, and exhaled slowly, trying to will away the feeling of her stomach dropping on the ground, the need to use the bathroom in a hysterical fit of nerves. She thought back to why she wanted to do this. During their failed attempt to capture Drakken and Shego, the green-tinged woman had mentioned that she'd be telling Kim when they were going to meet again... that meant a date. Kim had practically floated down to the Sanctuary floor to find her two sidekicks blushing furiously. She had raised an eyebrow at the two, then noted Ron clutching his broken belt. The hero simply didn't think about Shego's proposal until the euphoria of being with her lover had faded.

A date meant going out. Going out meant rushing home from cheer practise, finishing homework early, picking out appropriate clothing, matching accessories, and shoes. It meant manicure, pedicure and hair. It also meant talking to the parental units.

_If I want her in my world, I need to do this._

She came down the stair noisily to announce her arrival. Both James and Anne were home, for once. The Japanese project her father had been working on had entered the construction phase; James could hold to regular construction business hours, going to the office only to be available for last minute computations or to approve alterations. He sat at the table with several scientific journals spread before him. Anne was not on call this week and lounged on the wide couch, and was reading an electronic book on her handheld.

"Mom, D-dad?" Kim silently groaned at the stutter. The heads of her parents turned toward her in unison.

"What's up Kimmie-cub?" James asked with a smile as she approached.

"I-,... I need to talk to to you. Both of you." Anne's eye brows rose at Kim's serious and trembling voice, maternal alarms ringing madly.

"What's up, Kimmie? Sounds serious," Anne said, motioning for James to join her on the couch, as she swung her legs down. James quickly crossed the room and sat beside her. Kim stopped a few feet away from her parents, who looked up at her with puzzled expectation. Kim sighed. Everything she'd planned to say had just left for an extended holiday.

"Mom, Dad, I,..." Kim paused. "I wanted to ask someone to dinner," she said, blushing madly, fidgeting.

"Kim, you're dating again?" Anne smiled. She'd been dreading the tone Kim had started with, as if she was going to announce something she was ashamed of. "That's great honey!" James on the other hand, narrowed his eyes.

"Uh... actually, we've been... sort of dating... for a few months," Kim hung her head sheepishly, digging a toe into the carpet. "It's... it's getting really serious... so..."

"Who is this? Some boy from school?" James asked curiously. Kim's face reddened even more.

"No, no,... someone I've met... during missions..."

_OH MY GOD THIS IS SO FEROCIOUSLY THE DRAMA!_

James studied his daughter for a moment.

"So I was thinking we could have a lunch barbecue or something on Saturday..." she continued, not looking at her parents. James and Anne shared a quick glance.

"Does this person have any dietary restrictions?" asked her father. Kim thought for a moment.

"I don't think so..."

"Well a barbecue sounds like a fine time to get to know this new beau of yours! Now if you ladies will excuse me, there some numbers I need to crunch." He gave Anne a quick peck on her forehead, who in turn touched his arm before he moseyed out of the room. Anne turned back to her daughter.

"Kim, there're some things you've left unsaid... isn't there?" Anne asked, motioning for the hero to sit beside her. Kim was conflicted, wanting to tell her mother everything and not wanting to face the reaction the information might cause. Eventually, she sat down hesitantly.

"Yeah mom, there is..." Kim tensed slightly.

"Oh, honey, you know you can always tell me anything. Now come on, who is it?"

"Uh... well, it's someone you've met before..." The younger Possible's heart throbbed uncomfortably, her ears buzzing with tension.

"Oh? Someone I know?"

"Not... exactly..." Kim hedged. Anne sighed.

"Kimmie, you're being awfully mysterious about all this. Is there something you're afraid to tell me? You said you met him during your missions... Does he work for Global Justice? Is he much older?" Kim's eyes were glued to the floor.

"By five years, or just about..."

"Has he been pressuring you to have sex? Older partners can do that, since they tend to have been around the block more than a few times." Anne gave her daughter one of her patented piercing stares. A stare that had been infamous ever since she had faced down the National Medical Association President over certain irregularities in medical practise several years ago.

"Aw, Mom!" Kim's face turned a bright pink. Anne raised an eyebrow. Kim looked away. "Uh... no... not... exactly..." she mumbled.

"Ah. Have you been practising safe sex then, Kim? Condoms, or perhaps a douche? I mean, since you haven't asked for birth control pills..." Kim's face turned a deep and unrelenting shade of fuscia. Anne had to admit that Kim's blushes were certainly alluring.

"I-I..." Kim took a deep breath. "I... don't... need them..."

"Kim," Anne used her serious doctor's voice, attempting to pierce through the fog of embarrassment. "Semen can be a vehicle for all forms of infections and diseases... if it gets on you... or in you, Kim... you have to be careful." Anne's strained voice tore at her.

"Mom... there's... there's no semen."

"What?"

"I'm..." Kim swallowed, attempting to force the impossibly tingly feelings that swirled uncomfortably in her chest into a more manageable chaotic storm.

_How many times do I need to do this? Mom's an intelligent and open-minded woman,... maybe she'd understand..._

Kim took a deep breath.

"I'm dating a woman."

Anne's eyes widened. Her mouth opened and closed a few times.

"You're... you're dating... dating... a... wo-... wo-..." Kim's plaintive look was beginning to dull, the hope in her eyes fading at Anne's response. Anne snapped her mouth shut, closed her eyes, and took a deep breath and opened her eyes to continue. "I... see. Even so, vaginal discharge can still be a vehicle for..." Anne stopped. "Kimmie, I... I just don't want to see you get hurt. I know I can trust you, but do you know enough about this woman's past to be able to trust her?"

"Mom, I've known her for a while... she's not like that."

"Known her for a while? And I've met her, I know her?" A flicker went through her face. "Wait, you said... five years?" Anne was silent. She could see the need in her not-so-little girl's eyes, for approval and sincerity. But the neurosurgeon was deathly afraid for her child. What would the public think? What would the media do to her Bubble-butt when it got out, and it would get out. What about school? And PTA President, Louisa Rockwaller's daughter, Bonnie? Did Kim really understand what she was going to put herself through? Anne was silent as each question added a layer of worry.

"You're not... mad at me are you, Mom?" Kim asked nervous at how long the older red-head was silent for. Anne looked at Kim and smiled. With that single expression, Kim's world seemed to regain a vibrancy, colour.

"No, Kim," the neurosurgeon said, scooting closer and wrapping her daughter in a fierce hug. "I am, and will always be proud of you. I will never be embarrassed of you or whom you love. But I'm not going to lie to you, Kimmie... this isn't going to be easy... it's going to take some getting used to... Although your father did warn me..."

"What?" Kim's eyes opened in shock. "How... When,... I mean, who-?"

"Oh, Kim, it wasn't anything. Remember the trouble when you ran into Drew and thwarted his silly plan to be the smartest person on earth by dumbing down all the other geniuses? At Uncle Slim's ranch? Well the local authorities needed evidence of wrong doing. Your father was helping them by going through Slim's security feeds and stumbled across the internal surveillance cameras. He saw you talking with Joss... apologizing for something..."

"Talking to Joss...?" Kim stopped to think back to that visit to the Lazy C, almost a year ago. She remembered Joss being clingy, a suffocating obsessive enthusiasm that seemed to be a Possible trait. She remembered the awkweird apology. Joss had overheard her complaining to Wade about her cousin's disregard for her personal space, which led to the apology... where she said...

"You were saying something about being a cheerleader, and liking boys,... but only sometimes."

"I... what? Uh..." Kim sputtered, her hands and arms glowing. "And daddy _KNEW_?"

"Kim, you know he only puts on that 'and no boys' show for you, right? He loves you more than anything else in the world. You'll always be his Kimmie-cub. Although I do remember him prepping the Black Hole Orbital that night you came home extremely late after one mission with Ronald when you were fifteen..."

"Uh... Well,... I guess. I mean, he hasn't treated me any different." With one last hug, Anne stood.

"Let me talk to your father, alright Kimmie?" Anne turned to leave, stooped and turned back. "Oh, what's the name of your girlfriend?" Kim's face tensed again. Her eyes darted back and forth. She licked her suddenly dry lips.

"Sh'go," she mumbled.

"I'm sorry, Kimmie, what was that?" Kim looked up, her face brave in the morning light.

"Shego. I'm dating Shego. She's my girlfriend." Anne stared at he daughter, her face slack with shock. "Mom? Mom are you okay?"

Without a word, Anne slid to the floor in a faint. Kim leaped and caught her mother before the woman's head struck the coffee table. Kim checked her breathing and her pulse, then carefully dragged the unconscious Possible onto the couch. She put a cushion under her mother's feet and brushed the hair from her mother's elegant face.

"Well, that went as well as could be expected," Kim muttered.

- KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP -

Anne had awoken shakily and had headed out to speak with James after asking Kim to brew some coffee. Kim willingly obliged to get away from the dark pensive look Anne had; it was the look she wore when pondering an extremely difficult problem, with many possible disastrous results and very few bad ones.

Kim retreated up to her room and pulled out the flashing dragon broach, enjoying the slightly corrugated surface of the minutely carved scales. She ran her fingers over the design, willing her lover to her window. The hero wondered if she should wear something distractingly sensual, given what she was about to ask of the woman. Having sensed the thief's adversity to emotional attachment, she worried that the quickly evolving relationship would scare off the emotionally skittish super-powered villainess.

_Will she just cut her losses and run? I think she won't. I hope she won't._

But the woman didn't appear in the next few hours. Kim busied herself with her English term paper, an examination of Somerset Maughan's seminal works, assigned by Mister Barkin in Missus Krenshaw's absence. As the sun climbed higher, she went downstairs to lunch with a heavy, wistful sigh.

The tweebs were going on about a new rocket fuel with her father, talking about ratios and materials. Kim only half listened as she threw together a corned beef sandwich. Sundays were typically a fend for yourself type day. She had finally mastered the art of boiling something to death, and so, had begun a journey in sloppy overcooked meals.

Who had helped her through such a thing?

Ron.

Ron had finally explained to her the key that would help her out of her cooking fiascoes. That one thing that cooking required wasn't just patience or timing. It was awareness. He hypothesized at great and annoying length that Kim burned things because she didn't have patience, and got bored or distracted easily. As long as she busied herself with other aspects of cooking while awaiting the signal that something was ready, she could actually put together a decent meal. He had made his point when he asked her to make a breakfast her way (bacon, brown toast, eggs over-easy) and then again, but the second time following his instructions. Her solo attempt was an unmitigated disaster, resulting in a pan that melted and a chemical emergency. But with Ron's instructions, the meal came together in half the time it had taken for her to ruin a stainless steel pot and pan. The instructions had even included things to look or listen for, even smell for. The key was she tended to focus on a single task out of anxiety and would get bored during the wait, resulting in inattention, and ultimately, freak culinary accidents. But when she boiled the hot water in a whistling kettle, while starting the bacon, the toast and the eggs, she hadn't had time to get bored and ruin things by being distracted by the latest cover of a woman's magazine, or the gossip column in the local newspaper.

After another glass of orange juice, Kim retreated to her room to complete her readings.

"What's shaking, hot stuff?"

Those few words that greeted her set her dark green eyes to flash wide open as her heart seemed to be intent of flying away to a black and green clad figure.

"Sheeego!" Kim purred as she pounced on the thief.

"Ack!" The woman gasped as the red-head wrapped her arms around her. Inside, her heart was already doing a joyful prance.

"I missed you," Kim pouted slightly.

"Kimmie misses her green and black cuddle-buddie?" the woman smirked, ruffling the girl's hair.

"Well, yeah!" Kim hugged the woman again.

_She smells sooo good!_

"I can't stay long, so I hope this is important."

"Well, I missed you."

"It's only been about thirty hours since California, Pumpkin."

"I know, but I just really missed you! I really wanted to see you." The woman's face blushed a darker green, a look that set Kim's libido surging toward critical. The woman extricated herself from the teen's arms, turned her back to the girl, and wrapped her arms around herself.

"Look, Princess, I'm not just some genie you can summon on a freaking whim!" Shego huffed. Kim grinned slyly as she latched on again to the woman from behind. She pressed her suddenly aching body against the woman's back.

"Oh, I think I could rub you the right way," she purred into the woman's ear as she leaned in. She rose onto the tips of her toes and she gently nipped the woman's shapely earlobe, eliciting a slight hitch in the woman's breathing.

"I'm not that easy," Shego retorted huskily.

"I know," Kim replied as she began running her tongue along the ridge of the ear. Just being near the woman was intoxicating. "It took me over three years to get you to show me some magic."

"Kim," the woman gasped as she blew into her ear. Like her cousin Joss, the red-head had always been somewhat obsessive. Martial arts had been replaced by cheerleading. Missions replaced boy chasing. Crime fighting had replaced make-up and fashion. Soccer was a side-trip that had ended with her expulsion as a soccer coach; but in the long run, Kim took pride that her team had won the final summer tourney after her stint. Shego was her current fixation.

"Kim!" Shego struggled for a moment and finally broke free of the girl's embrace. "We can't keep... doing that every time we meet! I mean what happened in California was great, but we might have been found out by the hound Betty's set on you. Hell, I'm pretty sure one of the henchmen could still smell you on me!"

"I know," Kim said, immediately contrite. "It's just that, we hadn't seen each other for so long... I just couldn't help myself!" The woman stared at the teen's pathetic face for a moment and nodded.

"It was really fun for me too, Pumpkin. But if we're going to make this work then we can't just jump each others' bones every time we clash. I mean, people are going to start noticing that we're getting hickeys and not bruises..."

"Really, is there a difference?" Kim wondered out loud as she sat on her bed. Shego turned around and leaned against the desk.

"Okay," Shego snorted, "maybe not for us." She sighed. "But Kim, we've both spent years building our reputations. What we're doing,... what's happening between us, people aren't going to get it. And it's not just who I am that's on the line, do you get that? Besides, the public is just as quick to tear down as they are to put on a pedestal. Do you even get that?"

Kim thought about the oddly pleading tone in Shego's rough contralto. Did Kim really understand that? Well, yes, in an arm's length sort of way. But deep down in her heart, she simply didn't care. She knew life was full of injustice and unfair characterizations, that people who try to do the right thing could be torn down, lampooned and ostracized by a well placed rumour; Bonnie had made sure to educate her about that. Kim turned to face the noirette.

"I get it. And all I know is, I want you in my life, no matter the cost. I've been preparing all the people that need to know on a need to know basis... Haven't you seen my DVD yet?"

"Huh, what?" the woman blinked at the change in topic. She was silent for a long heart wrenching moment. "No. No, I haven't. It's impossible to get any privacy in the lairs. And my DVD player... uh, was damaged a few weeks ago, and I haven't replaced it." Kim felt a stab of disappointment, and was sure that Shego could have seen it; but then again, she'd seen the blueprints of most of Drakken's lairs. If Shego hadn't a player of her own, it would be nearly impossible for her to watch the DVD. Suddenly, an idea flashed spontaneously in her head.

"Well, that's okay. But, it would mean a lot to me if you'd watch it when you have the chance." Shego sighed for a moment before Kim hit her with the second half. "But this means you owe me. It took me a whole week to put that together for you."

"Kim..." Shego's glowing eyes met hers and Kim stood her ground, willing the woman to acquiesce. "Fine. What is it?"

"I want you to have lunch with my family." Shego's eyes opened wide in panic for a long moment as her mouth opened and closed several times.

"Kimmie..." the villainess finally croaked.

"I've already told them that we're dating," Kim went on, barrelling through the thief's apparent difficulty of coherent speech.

_Well, better than her just jumping out the window and leaving for good. Although she looks like she might any moment now..._

"We're having a cookout on Saturday. My dad's probably going to be doing a meatfest, so if you're vegan or anything, you better tell me."

"Wait! Did you just say that they know we're d-d-d," Shego snapped her mouth shut.

"I told them you're my girlfriend. Why?"

"And they're... okay... with that? That you're a lesbian? That I'm a felon? That you're dating a lesbian felon? A woman who's put you in the hospital more times than Michael Jackson's had plastic surgery?" Shego put her hands to her head, suspiciously as if to tear the hair out by the roots. Kim felt a shiver of desire as the black hair played before her; she snapped out of her reverie in time to respond.

"Well, yeah, I guess. At least, I mean, they haven't grounded me or anything... It was my dad who reminded me that I needed to ask you about your diet."

"Gawd! You Possibles are simply not normal!" The thief muttered under her breath, but Kim caught it.

"You Go's should talk," Kim giggled at the woman's panic stricken muttering. Shego shot a glare at the sniggering girl.

"So who else knows we're an item? Am I going to see this in Villain's Quarterly, along with a revocation of membership, delivered by deathray?"

"Everyone I've told, I trust."

"You're too trusting, Kim! Can you really trust them? I mean... Betty for fuck's sake!" Kim looked deep into the woman's eyes, wondering how this beautiful, amazingly competent woman had become so pessimistic regarding people.

"Yes. I can. Trust is a two way street, y'know."

"I don't trust people Kim. No one. Ever! That's how I've survived! Any moment, I can be double crossed. Every deal can always go south once the target's in the bag. That's my world, the real world, Pumpkin!" Kim mulled that over, a fear beginning to tingle under the bright flame of her certainty. She looked down at the floor, before screwing up her courage.

"Does... does that... include m-me?" she forced out. Shego looked away, her glowing eyes serious.

"I don't trust anyone."

Kim felt her world fracture in the space of those four words. Those words spanned the universe of her heart, encompassing it and contracting it painfully into a small ball of fear and confusion.

_But you can't have diamonds without extreme pressure and stress..._

"Then," she looked up at the woman, who had wrapped her arms around herself, "then, could I j-just... b-be with you... until you tell me t-to... get lost...?" Shego's incredulous eyes lifted and looked into the intoxicating deep green eyes that were misted over a tremulous smile.

"Kimmie..." Kim held her ground, even as the warring emotions boiled within her, and she bravely kept her eyes trained on the woman who held her world, all of her affection. The thief stared at the expression for a few long moments. Kim could see the thoughts rolling behind the woman's light glowing eyes. The woman shook herself and seemed to gather up her courage a second time.

"You know how I hate family stuff. I was never good at it. I don't even like people. Hell, you're the only one I can stand to be around for more than a few hours..." Shego slapped her forehead with a palm. "Fine. Yeah, I'll come to your little shindig." Kim recognized the sidewise apology and concession.

_We've still got time. She still wants to be with me._

Kim's beaming smile seemed to relax the comet-powered beauty.

"But..." Shego continued with an evil smirk, "I want us to go out afterwards. Lunch with the folks, then we go out. And we're not going to be home until morning. Got it?" Kim's furious blush forced a chuckle from the green-tinted thief, who opened the window and swung a shapely leg over the sill.

"W-wait!" Kim called to her, coming to her feet. "Where are we going? What am I going to wear?" She ran to the window as the Shego slipped out, the heavy curtain swinging closed. She pulled back the curtain only to come directly face to face with the thief.

"I'll take care of that Princess. You just be ready," the woman whispered, the trace of her breath shivering across the hero's lips. The kiss that followed lasted a good minute and left the girl dazed and weak-kneed.

"See you Saturday, Pumpkin!" the woman called as Kim collapsed to the floor, her legs no longer capable of movement.

- KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP -

Kim was a tightly wound vortex of anxiety. All week, she was worrying and wondering about Saturday. It was a weird breathless distraction of anticipation and distress. Along the way, she'd mentioned the cook-out to Ron, Lily and Monique. They were more than willing to see Kim with her girl. Cheer Practise, Dance Committee, Yearbook Committee, and Prom Committee all suffered from her distracted state of mind; Kim ended up delegating several responsibilities to other members. Things had not been good with her parents when she mentioned Shego's plans to them. Anne and James had shared a long look, as if communicating telepathically. The silent conversation ended with a slight arch of Anne's eyebrow and James's shoulders moving in a minute shrug. Kim had no idea what that meant and she wasn't sure if it was a good thing. Anne eventually simply said, "Thank you for telling us, Kim. We really appreciate your honesty." Kim thought her face would spontaneously combust from the way it felt.

Matters had not improved when a dress had arrived by courier. The worst part was that Kim could not tell if she was disappointing her parents or not. Both Anne and James had given her the line that she was now an adult and had to make decisions on her own, especially with relationships. The "we'll love you no matter what" line had failed to assuage the simmering broth of trepidation. But as Saturday approached, the anticipation and excitement began to overtake the unease. With no missions to distract her, Ron complained that she was acting like the time she'd drank a mug of Skybucks coffee. Lily, always up for a challenge had begun avoiding the topic of martial arts altogether attempting to curtail any another sparring session with the over-energized red-head.

When Saturday rolled around, Monique, Ron and Lily were already on the patio, chatting and having a good time, with lemonade and nachos. Anne was busy in the kitchen; Kim had been told to stay out, given her state of mind. James was outside, putting the corn and potatoes on the grill. The redhead wore a heart emblazoned dark blue halter with a light blue trim above tan embroidered capris. When the doorbell rang, Kim's heart leaped wildly as she charged down the stairs, only to be greeted by the scene of her mother squaring off with Shego at the front door. The villainess wore a dark green tank top over black slacks.

"Shego," Anne's voice was crisp. Shego's eyes were slightly unsteady, shifting around a bit.

"Uh, hi, Missus Possible..." Shego hesitated. "I brought some sparkling grape juice." The woman hefted a dark green bottle. Anne took the bottle and stepped aside.

"Thank you. Please, come in. Kim should... ah, here she is," Anne finished as Kim dashed down the rest of the stairs and threw her arms around the green-tinted thief.

"Shego!" she greeted her girlfriend ecstatically. Hands came up hesitantly to pat her on the back.

"Uh... hi Prin-, uh, Kim." Kim thought she could feel the woman's heart pounding, throbbing against her.

_Shego, nervous? Will wonders never cease?_

"I'll put this in the cooler," Anne said as she closed the door and disappeared toward the backyard.

Kim pulled back and glanced about for a moment.

_No one around. Good._

"Were you worried I wasn't going to- mmmph!" Kim captured the woman's lips with her own. After several seconds, she drew back with a contented sigh.

"Proper welcome kiss," Kim giggled at the woman's dazed look.

"Yeah..." Shego came to with a jerk. "Uh... hi."

"And no, I wasn't worried," Kim linked arms with the black-haired beauty and guided her through the living room to the sliding doors to the backyard patio.

"Really?"

"Nope. 'Cause you said you'd come," Kim grinned with supreme confidence. Shego grunted in reply. "C'mon, the gang's all here!"

"Wait-, gang?" Shego gasped incredulously as Kim threw open the patio door and pulled her into the backyard.

"Hey it's Kim's Green Goddess!" called Monique from one of the several deckchairs on the wide wooden patio. To one side, James was busy sizzling steaks on a large four burner brick and mortar grill..

"Shego, how's it going," Ron smiled from the other way. He stooped over a large red cooler. "What'll ya have? We've got some pop, lemonade, iced tea and what looks suspiciously like Hinniekeen." Lily, who was sitting with Monique simply stared at the villainess.

Shego stared uncomprehendingly at the greeting that she got.

"Uh, iced tea... thanks, uh... Ron." Kim grinned even wider at Shego's confused and strained civility.

_She's trying, she's really trying!_

Kim knew this was going to be a great day.

Lunch went off without a hitch. Monique engaged Shego in conversation, which the green villainess willingly participated in. They talked about fashion; Kim had mentioned to Monique, having noted her great fashion sense over the years. Ron was courteous without being pandering or excessively nervous, which surprise Kim somewhat. Lily was silent, observing everything. The fare was served hot off the grill, the steaks seared to mouth melting perfection. The tweebs asked for a plasma demonstration, but was shooed off by Anne, with a reminder about rules for plasma around the house. When James placed the slice of grilled tenderloin before her, there was a moment's hesitation, but after the first bite, Shego ate with gusto.

"This steak is just am-a-a-a-zing, Mister Possible," Shego spoke around another succulent morsel.

"Daddy takes pride in getting the steaks just right to everyone's tastes," Kim smiled. "He's so good at grilling now, he's got it down to a science."

"Well, now Kimmie, it still took me a year to figure out the grill," James interjected, holding up a hand.

"I've never had marinated steak before, though," Shego said. "How do you get it so good yet so tender?"

James smiled as he launched into a long winding recipe that included quality brandy, ziplocks and freezers, to the groans of the tweebs. Anne remained silent, which Kim found odd. Her mother was usually the perfect hostess, something which she had drilled into Kim, and a perfect hostess also included conversation. Yet the neurosurgeon seemed content to let the others handle it.

As the food wound down, Anne suddenly spoke up.

"Shego, why don't you help me in the kitchen while the others clean up out here." She levelled a steady look at the comet-powered woman.

"Sure, Missus Possible," Shego nodded. Kim glanced at her mom. Everyone helped stack the dishes and take things into the house. James tended to the grill clean-up. Kim brought in the last of the dishes and paused at the sink where Anne was just starting to run the water for washing.

"Mom, why don't I-"

"Help Ron with the volleyball net? Good idea, Kimmie." Kim paused at the interruption.

"Uh, yeah, it's okay, Pumpkin," Shego said, raising an eyebrow to Kim and glancing back at the medical doctor. Kim shrugged and went back outside with some hesitation and no little trepidation.

Twenty minutes later Anne swept into the backyard with a big smile on her face and replaced Kim, who was playing volleyball with Monique on one side and Lily and Ron on the other. The girl scurried into the house and found Shego sitting at the kitchen table, blushing furiously and sweating. The girl plopped herself directly on the thief's lap, arranged the woman's hands on herself and clasped her own hands behind the slim green neck.

"Are you okay?" Kim asked, curiously.

"Yeah... yeah, I'm okay. Damn Princess," Shego shook her head. "Your mom sure is a piece of work."

"I guess," Kim frowned slightly.

_What did mom say?_

The pale woman was silent for a long moment, something on her mind. Kim snuggled closer, putting her forehead against the woman's long, slim neck. It was several more minutes before Shego spoke again.

"You're... a lot like your parents," Shego murmured, almost wistfully.

"Well, they are my parents." The hero was unsure as to how to respond to a statement like that.

"No, I mean, sometimes, you're just so relaxed about things, like your Dad. But sometimes, you're so focused and intense, like,... uh..."

"My mom? Yeah. I've heard stories about her when she was in college and medical school. Insane hours, all-nighters. She was top of her class and everything. Really ambitious. You know she was only twenty-one when she graduated from neurosurgery? She used to complain that she had to go to all these conferences and not be able to rent a car." Shego chuckled; Kim's hyper energy was beginning to mellow. The two sat together for a little longer, relaxing in the afternoon light, listening to the goodhearted trash talk from the volleyball game outside.

"Hey you want to come out and play volleyball?"

"Sure. Just for a little, and then we need to get out of here and get to our date."

"Where are we going? You've been so secretive about it, and when my parents see that dress..."

"Just one of my old haunts," the woman brushed off with a wave. "As you always say, no big."

Kim wasn't so sure about that.

- KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP -

She turned and looked at herself in the mirror of the small landing that overlooked the living room.

She was wearing the dress that had come by express post. It was black and slinky on top, and off the shoulder tube that hugged her very closely, with three quarter length sleeves that held tight to her arms. The hem of the dress was frilly, layered and light. It was loosely pleated and short, the hem falling only half way down her thighs and sweeping up the front to criss-cross in the middle. A forest green choker rested snugly around her neck, the dragon pendant pinned in the centre, while a wristlet dangled from her left hand. A wide green belt wound around twice hung loosely on her hips. She bit her lips when she twirled experimentally on the black two inch ankle boots which had a dark green translucent platform sole and a thick heel. An ornately carved silver buckle flashed in the fading sunlight. Each time she moved, bright green lights would sparkle in the sole.

Kim took a deep breath. It was time to go.

She went down the stairs to find Shego sitting stiffly in the living room, fidgeting slightly under the gazed of her father and mother. The woman turned as Anne's eyes went to the descending red-head, standing as she took the girl in. Kim could see Anne's eyes on the woman, but for once, didn't care. Shego wore a short, black, close fitting collared shirt; three buttons were done up, the bottom open revealing a chrome studded black leather belt that held up tight low riding slacks, so dark the green looked black. The unbuttoned collar revealed a lighter green shoulder-less tube top that exposed a scandalous amount of cleavage. Tasteful, yet daring, that was her girlfriend alright, Kim smirked to herself.

Shego said nothing, but the slow lazy smile that grew on her lips was all the affirmation Kim needed or desired. The comet-powered beauty came around the couch and stared deeply into her eyes; there was an electric tingle from that connection. And as the woman's hand rose, Kim's flush of pleasure was echoed by a silent, scorching resonant exclamation when their fingers met.

Kim was hardly aware of breathing, of saying a breathless farewell to her mother and father, to her friends, her twin brothers, as the super-powered villainess led her across the landing, out the door and to an awaiting black and green hoverpod that shimmered into existence on the front lawn. She was oblivious of the look on her mother's face as her father wrapped his arms around the blinking neurosurgeon's waist, or Ron's approving wink as Monique laughingly she shook her head at the hero's dazed expression. Or Lily's obvious distrustful scowl.

She felt like she was floating in a dreamlike trance. The only sharply focused things within her awareness were the expressions on the woman's face, the scent of her hair and skin, the shimmer of her luxurious hair that was pulled into a low ponytail and held in places with a sparkling chain, the small black cord that wound several times around the long slim neck, nestling an iridescent dragon pendant in the heavenly space just above the exposed cleavage, the matching black and dark green leather cuff the thief wore on her right wrist, the soft, black leather, knee high, heavy soled boots where three thick bright buckles wrapped around.

Kim started when she realized the woman was speaking to her, a furious blush flaring from her cheeks, her neck, her arms. Even the soles of her feet felt embarrassed.

"Uh... sorry, I... what...?" Kim squeaked out. Shego's sultry chuckle deepened her glowing flush.

"I said, not that I mind the staring, because, I am all that, but we're almost there."

"There?" Kim wondered out loud finally tore her attention away from her beautiful girlfriend-

_I just can't stop calling her that!_

-and stared out of the darkened cockpit. Spread before her was a sparkling harbour, a sprawling metropolis, a lone single tower on an island in the water...

Kim blushed again. She had just spent almost the entire two hours of the flight to Go City staring at the villainess.

"Sorry! I didn't realize... I mean I didn't mean, oh gawd, I must look like such a..."

"I enjoyed every minute of it, Pumpkin," Shego grinned. "It's been a while since I've been ogled so intensely." The woman laughed as Kim dipped her head in mortification. The hoverpod quickly dipped and made straight for a tall building in the middle of downtown Go City. The redhead could see lights and lasers flaring from the roof and the top two floors of the skyscraper. They landed softly in a sheltered section of the roof. Shego popped the cockpit bubble and helped Kim down the ramp. The teen could hear the music blaring away, some sort of fast paced rap with an electric guitar going on behind the heavy bass and thundering beat. When they reached a vibrating door, a clawed hand reached out to open the door for Kim.

"Welcome to Marshall's," Shego smiled as she swung open the door. Kim gasped at the name. This was a hyper exclusive club that the Oh Boyz, recently down on their luck and their sales, had been refused entrance. Sensations like Britina and M. C. Honey frequented the establishment; Hollywood types, sports stars, money moguls and models would fill every corner.

The door swung open to reveal a cacophony of sound, light and bodies swaying in the smoky haze. At one end, on an open stage, several performers were grinding out a song, a girl hammering out the lyrics. A large part of the audience moved and jumped in frenetic tandem, scented stage smoke poured off the brightly lit platform. The dance floor swam with surreal fractal displays on embedded monitors.

Shego confidently led the staring girl up a winding set of wide, back-lit stairs to a series of round, elevated, softly lit booths. It was a rising stack of circular or oval balconies that overlooked the roof, ending above the stage. Some were huge, with billiards and dining tables. Others were single booth affairs with people crammed into the bench. Each platform had a burly and intimidating bouncer that reminded Kim of bruiser goons, specialists in close fighting, as opposed to the regular thug goons she fought.

"Yo! KP? Girl, is that you?" she heard a voice call out. Shego paused as Kim turned her head.

"M.C. Honey?" Kim shouted as she spied the dark skinned girl at one of the roped off booths. The woman waved off her bouncers as she stood up and walked across to the roped off rail. She leaned over and gave Kim a hug that the girl returned. The rapper was in party gear, a snazzy glittering fedora, a chic, slinky halter top dress under a glittering faux fur short jacket. She wore silver pumps.

"Hey, what are you doin' here, girl? You are dressed for some serious ball-breakin' tonight! Chizzin' from the hero biz?"

"It's kind of a secret," Kim had to lean in to speak to the woman to be heard over the noise. Suddenly an arm wrapped itself around her waist and pulled her away from the rapper.

"She's here with me," Shego's contralto breathed huskily into her ear. The thief's soft voice carried perfectly at the rapper's shocked eyes. Even without turning, the villainess's smirk was a palpable presence. The woman looked up and put both hands over her mouth, muffling something that suspiciously sounded like a squeal.

"Shego! You back girl?" The multi-platinum entertainer bounced with excitement. "You gonna do a number, like old times? C'mon, give us a little somethin' somethin'!" Kim was surprised at the famous rapper's reaction to seeing the comet-powered villainess, but then...

_This is her town, of course people would be excited, happy to see her._

Shego simply smiled and shook her head as she pulled Kim further up the stairs to a large oval shaped balcony at the top of the stack. A three-hundred pound bouncer unclasped the rope and held it open as Shego imperiously swept up; the woman shook the man's hand, and Kim noted the crisp bill that the man instantly palmed.

The platform was surrounded by a curved, stylized rail. One narrow end had a set of leather couches. The other end had a private bar, complete with counter and a raft of bottles close at hand; atop the counter sat a few computers. Up against the long side that faced the stage was a very comfortable looking couch and a table. The platform topped the stack, and was high enough for as much privacy that could be had. Kim was bewildered and flattered that Shego had one; it was obviously the most exclusive part of the club.

"Hungry, Pumpkin?"

Kim paused and nodded. It was almost dark.

"Let's sit and I'll order us some stuff. It'll be finger foods though." Shego led the astounded teen to the couch overlooking the stage. It was closer than she thought. Kim could see the sweat rolling of the girl as she belted out a popular song that had just started playing on the radio, but was rocketing up the charts and was pulling in reviews by the score.

As she sat down on the black leather, Shego leaned over the table and pressed a lit orange button. After a moment, a screen lit up in the inset of the table. In it was a man in a chef's uniform, his red beard neatly trimmed.

"Ah! Miss Shego! Good of you to drop in, it's been too long!"

"Hey Rick. Yeah it's been too long."

"An order of your usual?" Shego glanced at Kim who simply shrugged.

"Sure. Oh, and send up a mango raspberry spritzer, would you?"

"Anything for you, girl, you know that. Are you going to do a number? You know Carmen's going to spot you right away..."

"Not tonight. I haven't done anything in years. Just send her up if you see her. I'll talk to her in the booth."

"Right. Food'll be up in a jif!" And with that the connection was terminated.

The more Kim heard, the more questions crowded into her quickly overheating mind.

"Shego,... how?... what?" The villainess smirked at the babbling girl. Kim stopped and took a deep breath. "I've got so many questions, I don't know where to start!"

"Team Go helped the owners of the club out just before I quit, way back. I sometimes stop here to show my face. I'm pretty sure this private area's almost never used; the Wegos are still too young for the club scene, Hego wouldn't be caught dead in a place like this and Mego,... I guess his tastes have changed."

"Uh, actually I wanted to ask why aren't you hiding?" Shego lifted her eyebrow.

"Don't piss where you drink, Cupcake."

"Ah... okay?"

"Look. Sometimes I need downtime too, ya know? I don't want to have to be all stressed out about the authorities when I'm trying to relax; can you image trying to get a massage with Mitus when you have to keep checking the door, the shadows, the room temperature and a half a million other things that can tell you if you're about to be busted? So there are places I won't work, not for anyone. One is the Caribbean. One is Greece. And one is here, in Go City."

Kim mulled that over for a moment and nodded. At that moment, three stunning wait staff filed into the platform with trays laden with several platters of finger foods. One placed a glowing green drink in front of the thief, another placed a two toned juice before her, yellowish orange on the bottom, a deep red on top. Some foods, Kim could recognize, like guacamole and chip, or calamari and garlic shrimp. There was also small rolls with raw fish, some odd looking deep fried tidbits and some meat that was laid out in an interesting pattern. Something that looked like beans, but was cold and sweet. Kim made sure to sample each dish. What she was unprepared for was the assault of tastes and flavours that flowed over her tongue.

A few minutes later, a slim, short haired blond woman in a flowing white linen tunic dress with gold trim and waist tie sauntered onto the platform.

"Shego! Why haven't you been returning my calls!" The woman's grin tempered her outraged tone. Shego stood up and they exchanged kisses to the cheek. Shego led the woman over to the bar and they conversed quietly. The woman kept one manicured hand on the villainess's arm, who spoke on as if completely oblivious to the gesture. A sudden burning flare went up inside Kim's body. She recognized the adrenaline rush, and fought the urge to wrench the comet-powered woman away from the beautiful, tall and statuesque blond. How could that woman be a threat? She wasn't a threat... was she...? Kim bit her lips, remembering something.

_I don't trust anybody._

But Kim could swear to herself that she had heard the pain, the loneliness, the tired long suffering sigh of abandonment in Shego's voice when she had said those words. Kim resolved herself to simply enjoy being with the glowing woman, to live in the now.

"Kim?" The teen looked up and saw that Shego had led the tall woman over. "This is Carmen, the owner of the club, and an old friend."

"Carmen Marshall?" Kim said as she stood and shook the woman's slim hands. "Nice to meet you."

_What kind of friend?_

"Carmen, this is Kim Possible," the woman continued, "my girlfriend."

_Abooyah!_

"So thiiiis is Kim," Carmen teased the green woman. "It's so nice to finally meet you. Shego talks about you all the time whenever we get together."

"Really?" Kim's eyes narrowed and looked at Shego. "Then you have me at an advantage."

"I suppose I'm not interesting enough then... Oh, hey Shego, are going to-"

"Carmen," Shego grated dangerously as the blond backed away with a laugh.

"Alright, alright, you old firedog." Kim snorted at the name.

"Carmen!" Shego raised a fist that suddenly flamed a flamboyant green.

"Nice meeting ya Kim! We'll talk more later," the woman called back, beating a giggling retreat. "We can swap stories!"

Shego deliberately kept the conversation light and moving, keeping things interesting by changing the subject smoothly. Before Kim realized it, the food was finished, and she was sipping on the fourth of the delicious cocktail.

"Shego," Kim said, finally unable to resist the question. Shego raised a fine eyebrow.

"Yeah, Pumpkin?"

Kim hesitated. Confronted with the reality of asking, Kim belatedly considered her question. If she asked Shego about Carmen, would the thief think that Kim didn't trust her? And if Shego answered, would Kim trust her answer? Again, Shego's words came back to haunt the teen. It seemed like a lose-lose proposition, but now she was on the hook for a question.

"Uh... why does everyone keep asking-"

"Me to do a number?" Shego groaned as she leaned into the back of the couch spreading her arms along the backrest. They listened to a new performer belting out some reggae number down below.

"A long long time ago," Shego sighed. "There was this geeky girl with glasses. Her mom and dad were always busy and always left her with her two brothers. The brothers were always fighting and never got along very well. Tired of their bickering, the girl started wandering the neighbourhood. She wandered down the street and into a park. And inside the park was another young girl, with nothing to do. But there was a difference between the two girls. One brought nothing with her; the other, held a Fender Vintage '57 Stratocaster, and a small travelling amplifier. And although the guitar was just a dead thing, in the girl's hands, she made it come alive with music that soared into the afternoon air. The girl who had brought nothing recognized some of the tunes, and the playing was so good, she wanted to give something back to the other. But because she brought nothing but herself, she opened her mouth and sang instead. And the two girls were transformed into friends." Kim stared at the woman's pensive face as the softly glowing green eyes stared up at the twinkling stars.

"So... you were a singer?"

"Naw," Shego snorted, slightly morose. Kim wondered at the sudden change in the woman's humour. "Real life got in the way. I haven't sung since I was eighteen." The woman visibly shook herself. She stood abruptly and took Kim's hand, pulling her into her arms. Kim squeaked as Shego pulled her intoxicatingly close. Below, the stage was being occupied by a turntable disc jockey, who was spinning out some hot dance mixes.

"C'mon, let's dance!" The woman pulled her out of the platform and down the stairs and suddenly, Kim found herself standing on the dance floor. Before her, Shego swayed her hips suggestively, arms in the air.

"Hey, Princess, show me whatcha got!"

Kim smirked at the challenge. She closed her eyes, feeling the music, letting her heart synchronize with the driving, pulsing beat, letting the worries and jealousies and anxieties drain away under the audio assault; she felt the girlishness of the light frilly skirt and the tight revealing sensuality of the top, recalled the lights in her heels, and in a single hypnotically infinitesimal moment, began to dance. She danced until her arms and legs ached. Until her lungs burned. Until sweat ran down her body. And she felt that she could do this because Shego was here. Because she felt safe in the woman's presence. That she didn't have to worry about doing the right or wrong thing. That the woman wouldn't judge her. And so... Kim danced, and danced only for her.

She was unaware of how long she danced. Always, she only had eyes for the black haired glowing woman in front of her. The hero moved her body, each sway and bump an attempt to possess every iota of the super-powered woman, whose glowing green eyes certainly seemed to liked what she saw. Which, in turn, encouraged the red-head to be even more daring, more sensual. Kim found herself touching the woman, with her back, her hands, her arms, her bottom, her thighs. In a near erotic trance, Kim could feel the woman's eyes claiming her in turn as she swayed to the beat. The hero slid closer, tighter, hotter, the bright laser strobing the message of her heart through touch, movement and sound. Kim teased the dark lips with her breath, her cheek, her tongue, before finally snaring the thief's lips with her own, even as they swayed together.

"Kim," Shego's breath panted across her lips. "Let's get out of here!" Kim simply nodded in her sensual daze. The noirette seized her hand and drew her across the dance floor, making for the door to the hoverpod.

"He-hey ladies," said a voice before them. Kim blinked at the four guys standing before them, blocking the door to the hoverpod. She lifted out of the obsessive haze and recognized one of them.

"Nicky... nick?" Kim shrank away from the men.

"That was some show you put on there. Why don't we go and hang out at our crib?" Shego pushed by them, pulling Kim past. Suddenly the comet-powered beauty whipped the teen into her arms and planted a passionate kiss on the redhead, who fell right back into her trance.

"Sorry fellas, but ladies only at this par-tay." Giggling, the two burst through the door and ran up the stairs to the waiting hoverpod.

- KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP -

"What's wrong, Pumpkin?" Kim was uncharacteristically quiet on the flight. Kim shook herself, realizing that she was moping, As the haze of the excitement had faded, and the events of the day caught up to her, Kim was turning over the memories in her mind, carefully considering them and storing away each precious moment. As amazing as the whole day had been, the final encounter at Marshall's had left a bad taste in her mouth and Kim felt slightly out of sorts with the feelings that it had revived in her, even if it was just a moment.

"I... it's nothing. I'm sorry, I don't know what's gotten into me."

Shego stared at the red-head for a moment, without speaking, then turned her attention to where they were headed. The hoverpod lifted over a hill behind the city and dipped into a dark, forested valley. One claw flicked a switch, turning on the night-vision camera and the beacon sensor, while the villainess expertly spun the vehicle around to face the rolling foliage they had just flown over.

A small red light began to blink, its location immediately translated to the night-vision sensor. They flew two miles to the left of the flashing light and, as they lowered further and rounded the steepening grade of the ground, they slipped around a sheltered fold in the hill, and flew into a cave. Kim had to physically hold herself still as Shego expertly flew the pod through the narrow confines, missing crags, stalactites and stalagmites by inches. Passing what the hero could tell were several dead drops and crossings so treacherous, even she would think twice about traversing the long winding cave, they rounded one last bend. As they passed the corner, soft lights began to glow.

Kim gasped.

The tunnel opened into an enormous cavern. A stream flowed in from a narrow crevice. A large pool of water dominated the floor, the water lapping lazily against the far side. Shego slowed the hoverpod and followed the wavefront of the lake. Kim stood and pressed her face against the cockpit bubble, her breath frosting on the clear pane. The entire cavern floor was covered with massive natural crystal formations, worn smooth into strange rounded steps. Everywhere she looked, with the moonlight streaming down from a hole in the ceiling, the cavern sparkled. Kim could see a small cabin set against the cavern wall next to the shoreline, a hoverpad a short distance down from the building. The hoverpod slid quietly onto the flat clearing, glowing stones flickering to life. A softly lit path wound its way to the cabin.

"You like?" the woman murmured behind her.

"Wow," Kim said breathlessly. "Just... wow!"

Shego smiled as she brought them to a gentle stop on the pad. She began powering down the hoverpod. Noticing Kim's sudden restlessness, she retracted the cockpit bubble. The teen was practically whining with suppressed excitement, bouncing on from foot to foot, the sparkles in her boots flashing.

"Go ahead and look around Pumpkin. I'll finish up here and we'll go in for some hot cocoa-moo."

"You sure?" Kim demurred.

"Know how to do the flight check?"

"No."

"Off you go. Have fun, it'll only be a couple of minutes." Kim smiled back at the villainess before hopping out of the hoverpod. She landed on the smooth surface of the tarmac and gazed around. The night air was slightly chilled, but the crisp cold helped clear some of her earlier moodiness.

"And careful with the wet rocks, Kimmie!" Shego called down to her. "The quartz is slippery when wet!"

"'Kay!" Kim wanted to wait for the woman and not go into what looked like a metal cabin set right into the cavern wall. She spied a wharf a ways down the shore of the lake. "I'm gonna check out the water!"

"The dock? Yeah, okay!"

The redhead strolled down the water's edge, staring into the deep dark pool. The water reflected the sparkling light of her boots back at her. The cavern was silent, but for the fading sounds of the thief moving about in the hoverpod.

Kim walked down the wooden dock which extended a good thirty feet into the water. Thick metal support poles rose on either side at regular intervals. When she reached the end, Kim looked around a bit. The water was completely still, the surface reflecting the star speckled sky. She sat down and dangled her feet over the edge and let the quiet wash over her, clearing her mind so that she could think.

Shego didn't trust anybody. What could she possibly be afraid of? Of what storms might follow, if their secret got out? It would force them to choose, and any relationship was based on trust. Shego let the hero be close, because she trusted Kim enough, at least, to not try to change her. But what about herself? Could be stay the same? She wasn't looking to change the woman, but that, she realized, was naive. Just simply by virtue of being with the super-powered woman, Kim herself had changed somewhat. She was now sexually active for a big one. Shego. Her first true love. Her first... lover. Kim's face flushed a little at that. Her brain was slowly re-wiring itself to respond to the woman in ways she'd never have considered a year ago. Memories would replay itself with a different light, one that glowed with a singular focus, a woman in a green and black catsuit. Kim closed her eyes and prayed that they would have a little longer. She watched the calm, cool mirror that lay before her, glowing with mystery. There weren't going to be any answers here, by herself. It would be a subject that they would have to face together. But after the woman's firm denial of trust, Kim was afraid to bring it up again. She simply sat, absorbing the tranquillity around her.

She wasn't sure how long she had sat there, but eventually, Kim could hear the sound of the approaching woman.

_I hope I get the chance to get used to hearing that..._

"Hey Kimmie," Shego said. Kim smiled. Knowing the extent of the thief's prowess, the hero knew that the woman had deliberately tread more heavily so as not to sneak up on her. "Ready to go inside for some cocoa-moo?" The hero stood up and turned, placing a coquettish tilt to her hip to find Shego carrying a duffel bag over her shoulder.

"Sure. Just one thing?"

"What?"

"What's cocoa-moo?" Shego's smile was so seductive to Kim that her face flamed bright. Her mind wavered under the wave of desire that threatened to swamp her. She felt hot. She felt faint.

"Hot chocolate, Princess. Hot... chocolate." The red-head swayed for a moment.

"How do you do that?" Kim said as she forced herself to speak calmly and walk straight. Shego fell in beside her as they re-crossed the dock.

"What?"

"Make hot chocolate sound like... lovemaking," the red-head squeaked out, her deepening blush warming her against the chill. Shego wrapped her free arm around the smaller girl's shoulders, matching her stride, pulling their sides tightly together.

"Well, if you'd rather I just said hot, passionate, funky, nasty, dirty,-"

"Shego!" Kim giggled, goosing the woman in the side.

"I'll get you for that, Possible," Shego growled with a mock glare.

"So, what is this place? It's so close to Go City. Isn't it dangerous for you?"

"I bought this place years ago, before I left Team Go. Right now, the entire land around you is owned by Go Unlimited, labelled as training grounds. Mego secured the land for me, and I've been renovating ever since."

"This place is beautiful."

"Yeah. I found it during one of our run-ins with Aviarus. He was trying to subjugate a bird sanctuary a couple miles from here. He nearly got away, but as he was flying off, I grabbed onto him. He did his best to shake me. We flew around crazy for a while until I was able to climb up and stun him."

"How high were you up? You stunned him, like with your zappy-zap?" Kim snapped her fingers.

"I prefer calling it the nap tap. You know," Shego lifted the hand that rested on Kim's shoulder, spread her index finger and thumb apart. A brief but visible arc of plasma crackled softly, before Shego replaced her hand on the teen's shoulder. "Anyway, not one of my smarter moves. We fell about forty feet, but at least it was into trees. Well, bird-brain fell into the trees. Me, I fell down here, another hundred feet."

Kim glanced up at the hole in the cavern's dome.

"Ouch."

"Yeah. I had to drag myself to shore with one arm. Dislocated my elbow. I had to pull it straight quick, before healing factor kicked in. Took a day to heal up. Mego and the Wegos were out looking for me. Should have seen their faces when I just popped out of the ground." Shego chuckled at the memory.

"Anyway, after that, I couldn't leave it alone. A natural crystalline quartz cavern? Unreal. I insisted the we buy the place; and we did, through Go Unlimited, but everyone knew that it was for me, not just for 'Training Grounds' as it's listed in Go Unlimited assets." They reached the walk up to the cabin and turned up the smooth path.

"Over the villain years, my personal assets were converted to a trust fund, administered by the board, and most of the funds were used here. This is my place. Well, I caught Mego up here with one of his boyfriends, and I tossed him out on his ass. He said he's still got scars from that, even with his moderate healing. Other than that, no one else's been here."

Kim felt a sudden blush of pleasure blossom within her. Shego's words had unwittingly let her know that she was special. Beyond friends, beyond family. Just her and Shego.

Kim giggled.

Shego glanced at her as they stopped in front of the cabin door.

"What?" Shego asked as she released the red-head. The girl just shook her head, then rising on tiptoes, placed a quick kiss on the woman's lips.

"I love you."

Shego blushed furiously, her pale green skin darkening as she fumbled with the duffel bag.

"Crazy kid," she muttered.

"Your crazy kid that you've been sexing." Shego laughed as she put her hand into a hole in the door. She took a deep breath, then concentrated.

"Close your eyes." Kim immediately lowered her eyelids.

There was a loud roar accompanied by bright green light that the hero could see even with her eyes closed. But it lasted only a second.

"Okay." Kim opened her eyes and blinked at the afterimage. The door was beginning to swing outward. Shego pushed her back several paces as the metal door continued to ponderously open.

"Uh, just how thick is this door?" Kim asked as the door continued to open slowly.

"About six feet."

"That's one big door."

Shego snorted at Kim's wry comment. They waited for another minute and slipped through as the back edge cleared the jamb. Inside was a small rectangular room that had a single cot, and a desk to the right, and coat rack and table to the left. On the wall facing the massive door was an antique icebox and element stove.

"Huh, this is a bit of a let down, after that massive door," the hero smirked. Shego walked across the floor and began twisting the stove dials.

"You ain't seen nothin' yet," the comet powered woman said as she pushed down on the rear right element, her hand glowing. The entire wall section to the right of the stove retracted and slid to the side.

"Welcome to Chez Shego," the woman said with a sweep of her hand. Kim stepped through with wide-eyed wonder.

Past the fake room, was a dimly lit, oval, open concept space that must have been a hundred feet long. The entrance was in the middle of one long curve. In the centre of the room was an inset that dropped three steps to a large round bed with a large cabinet headboard and black satin sheets. Two large cases bracketed the bed fifteen feet away on opposite ends. One case held a flat panel television was the largest she'd ever seen outside of a sporting stadium. The other shelf held a bar and books. Beyond the left shelf was what looked like an open concept bathroom, with a toilet room set inside the wall. A low path ran from the bed to a sheltered balcony that ran the length of the room opposite the entrance. The twinkling lights of Go City could be seen in the distance. Behind the right shelf was an island kitchen, with a bar style counter that separated the kitchen from an intimate dining table.

Shego unhooked the large buckles and laces on her boots, placed the footwear on the mat and slipped into a comfortable pair of black moccasins. She drew a burgundy pair from a shoe rack by the now closing panel and handed them to Kim. The girl followed suit, sitting on a sculpted wooden bench next to the shoe rack, sighing as she took off her boots and rubbed her aching feet. This was probably the longest she'd ever worn heels in one go, and her feet and back were already sore. She slipped her feet into the moccasins. They fit perfectly.

"Why don't you look around while I square this away?" Kim nodded, her eyes trying to take in everything at once. The villainess walked down to the bed and pulled open drawers secreted under the bed skirt. As Kim wandered toward the bathroom, she noticed the lack of personal touches. There were paintings on the walls and tasteful vases, but they all had an impersonal, deliberate quality about it, as if arranged by an interior decorator and meaningless to the comet-powered woman. By the time she reached the bathroom, she needed to go.

"I'm gonna use the little girl's room," she called out.

"Go ahead, Princess," Shego replied. "Just press the number one button to flush!"

_What?_

The woman was partially obscured by the television cabinet. In the corner was a large marble hot tub, complete with underwater speakers and green neon backlighting. Beside were two low boudoir tables topped with tall full length mirrors. Between them was a closed door. Closest to Kim was a sink and the door to the toilet.

Kim walked into the small room and closed the door. When she turned and looked for the facilities, her eyes widened. It looked like a toilet... and not. There was no water tank, and certainly didn't look porcelain. It looked more like an advanced technological appliance, with armrests and a comfortable seat covered with plastic wrap. Protruding from one side was a small flatpanel. But it had the look of a toilet...

As she sat down, the LCD display came to life, spooking her. It displayed a number of Asian women using the commode, and showed the various functions it could do. Kim remembered the confusion she had with some of the bathrooms in Japan, and this reminded her of them. The seat must be one of those high tech bidet/toilet combinations! While she used the facilities, Kim watched the brief video, in an effort to puzzle out the buttons on the touch screen.

By the time she exited the bathroom, she had been thoroughly cleaned.

_Well, I guess I won't need to do a quick clean up later..._

After a quick stop at the sink to wash her hands, and seeing that Shego was still busy putting some things away, Kim decided to take in the view on the balcony. She watched the lights of planes coming and going in the dark skyline, the ships moving lazily in the harbour. The moon glittered high above the water.

"Kimmie." The girl froze at the sultry voice, trying to control the sudden, giggly trembling in the pit of her stomach. She turned at a quiet hissing sound and found the bed sliding down the path toward the balcony, with Shego in only the tube top and dark lacy panties. The lights dimmed until only moonlight illuminated them. Kim laughed at the mobile bed and the pale thief grinned wickedly. The woman's glowing eyes and pale, moonlit skin was sending an unending thrill down into the inner most recesses of her mind. The bed stopped an inch away from her; not having worn a bra, Kim could see her girlfriend's arousal. Shego slid over, her hands on the hero's belt.

"Let me help you with that."

Entranced, the teen watched the pale green hands slowly unbuckled the belt and pulled it loose from her waist. Her breath hitched from the swirling desire that was rising up within her, deft fingers fleetingly teasing her belly. The woman gently spun her, then reached for the buttons of the dress. As each fastener popped open, Kim felt the soft touch of the woman's lips planting a blossom of affection along the dip of her spine, pulling down the fabric to reveal the black slip the girl wore beneath. The hero whimpered slightly as the woman slid up and pressed in from behind.

"I'm ready for some cocoa-moo," the thief whispered huskily into her ear. "You?"

Kim bit her lower lip and nodded, not trusting her voice.

_This is what I want. I want this forever..._

Kim leaned into the woman, who helped lay her down slowly onto the bed, pillowing the girl's head in the warmth of her thighs. She placed a long, lingering kiss on the teen below her. Kim giggled and gasped slightly at the tingling ticklish feeling of the woman's hair teasing her torso. The passion of this night was different, as if a layer of intimacy had overlaid and augmented the moment. Shego shuffled back, pulling Kim along until they both rested fully on the bed.

"Did you have a good time, Princess?" Shego asked, her eyes glowing hypnotically above her in the dim moonlight.

"Oh yeah," Kim sighed, gazing up, enjoying this rare vantage point.

"You were a bit quiet on the on the way back, so I wondered," Shego said. Kim stiffened at the rush of remembered feelings and sat up abruptly. "So. Something did bother you."

"Yeah." The villainess was silent for a moment, watching the teen. Kim could feel the woman replaying the evening in her head.

"Those boys...?" she asked gently. Leave it to Shego to notice a split second reaction. "When that blond talked to you, you pulled back a bit."

"Yeah... they... I kinda..." Kim looked away, a flush creeping up her face. Shego turned a curious gaze to her. "I've never really had much luck with the boys."

"What? No way! You're the most popular kid in school!" Kim raise an eyebrow. "Uh, I mean, from... er... from when I was stalking you, I could tell." Shego's own mirroring flush burned on her cheeks. Kim's smile was bitter and rueful.

"Yeah, popular like the a mascot dog for a commercial is. But romantically?" Kim shook her head and raised a hand. "Locked braces on my first kiss." Up went one finger. "Fell for a Synthodrone." Another finger. "Rebounded on her best friend." A third finger. Kim let her hand fall onto her lap. "Romance, I struck out every time. And besides, who wants to hang out with a girl who has to ditch people last minute all the time to go save the world?" That last bit was so bitter, echoing old feelings.

"Kim... this isn't just about boys,... is it...?"

"Well,... it's kinda... stupid," Kim looked down, her hands twisting in her lap. "When I was sixteen, I had this huge crush on a boy. He was smart, and creative, and cool. Every time I'd run into him, my brain would just turn to mush."

"Wait! Two years ago... it wasn't that skinny-assed hottie that I saw during Halloween, was it?"

"Uh... yeah. Josh Mankey. Anyway, we'd been sort of feeling each other out and I was finally able to talk like a human being around him, when he asked to look at my mission scrapbook, asked me to bring it over to his place. My heart was pounding like crazy. I wanted to share my missions with him, to talk about it with him, so that he could understand something that was important to me. When I got to his place, he said his parents were out." Kim stopped for a moment. Shego sat up wondering what the girl was going to say, afraid what it might be.

"My heart was beating so hard and I could barely stop the trembling in my breath. I thought maybe we'd make out a bit or something," Kim eventually said. "We sat on the couch, and I pulled out my scrapbook. But he just pushed me down; he felt so heavy. His breath smelled sweet and cheap, like from a breath mint. He didn't even care to look, but I really wanted him to... I don't know, understand me, I wanted to share it..." Kim took a shuddering breath; Shego reached out a hesitant hand. She paused, then lowered her arm.

"And then I got so... scared! Me, Kim Possible, world saver, master of sixteen martial arts... And I was freaking out over a boy pushing me down. I kicked him off, grabbed my stuff and just ran for it. When I got home, I pretended nothing had happened, but... My mind just wouldn't stop thinking about how... Was that all I was good for? Was that all he wanted from me, thought I'd wanted? Did he think I was that easy? I was so ashamed and embarrassed..." Kim's head sank lower and lower, the roiling echoes of terror a memory of the whirlpool of nightmarish emotions that had run rampant through her. "The next day, he just pretended as if we never had anything. Like we never went out at all." She drew a shuddering breath. "At least he didn't tell anyone, or say I was a terrible lay, or something..." Kim hands gripped each other in tense fists.

"I mean, it was all my fault. I probably shouldn't have... but was it so wrong to just want someone... to love you for who you are...? The worst part... was that I... I thought about just letting him, y'know... that maybe it didn't matter if he didn't really... that I'd just feel... less... lonely... but in the end... I just couldn't... I just..."

The two sat quietly for several long moments, the soft sound of their breathing the only thing to be heard in the night air.

"You... wanted someone who understood... who would accept you for who you were..."

Kim nodded silently. She bit her lip, holding back tears that threatened to burst the final reserve of strength that capped the roiling overflow of emotion.

"Kim," Shego said, slowly. Kim's eyes slid away; the tension was burning, drowning, suffocating.

_Here it comes. Here comes the rejection._

She couldn't bring herself to look the thief in the eye. Kim held her breath.

"It's okay. Just do what you want; what you need to do, to be who you are. Because, well..." Shego paused and continued. "Because, after all these years, I know you. I know what it's like. I understand you. And I'm here, with you." And suddenly, Kim was staring at the ground, tears streaming down from her wide incredulous eyes, down her face. It was an unexpected and sudden affirmation that she had longed for all these years, all this time.

"K-kim?" Shego asked. With a quick jerky motion, the lithe red-haired girl cannon balled into the dark-haired woman.

"I-it j-j-j-just made m-m-me f-feel so wo-wo-worthless..." the girl sobbed, her arms wrapped tightly around the comet-powered beauty. "And t-that's why, I th-th-thought maybe, if I d-d-did enough..." Shego lifted her arms hesitantly, then wrapped them tightly around the crying girl. She stroked the long red-hair. "A-a-a-and I just hated myself for that..."

The comet-powered woman continued to stroke the girl, not knowing what else to say, what else to do. After several minutes, she began nuzzling the girl's neck and breathing in the scent of her hair. It was instinctive, yet it felt... right, some how. As if the soft touches and motions were able to smooth away the wrinkles of self-loathing that marred the pristine landscape of Kim's mind. She leaned into the woman's touch.

The more the woman touched, the more the girl craved. It was a rising, swelling tide that washed away all the greechy feelings of inadequacy that Kim had hidden away deep inside herself, that she thought would never go away. And with just a few words, Shego had wiped the slate clean for her, burned away the rankling, worming hate and anger, that had only made a single appearance, the fateful night of L'il Diablo. When Drakken's master plan, to break Kim's spirit through romantic betrayal had been realized. Shego, oblivious to Drakken's plan, had teased the Kim mercilessly as she always did, but had been taken completely by surprise at the swirling maelstrom of murderous anger that had been unleashed that night.

The more the teen craved, the more the woman responded. Soon, lips were nipping at the nape of the girl's exposed throat. Kim felt as if all the past things that she felt was wrong with her, simply ceased to matter under the calming touch and increasingly insistent lips of the beautiful mint green woman.

The girl had been a force of passion to be reckoned with in their past encounters, but this time, she lay compliant to Shego's every whim and command. Where the clawed fingers touched, the girl arched, where they pulled, the girl shivered, pebbling with exquisite waves of desire. The woman lifted away the panting girl's slip, discarding it on the floor. Panties soon followed, lips distracting the arching and twisting teen as they imbued a heavenly bliss upon the taut flat belly.

Shego spent an inordinate amount of time with Kim's mid-riff. The smooth planes of the skin were marked with well concealed scars. It was like a telltale, symbolic history of their relationship. Soft fingertips glided across an old scar, feeling the ridges; it was there the glowing woman had first placed a glancing blow with a plasma fist. Then around to the back a long, almost invisible scar that Kim got from sliding across the floor of a lair from a well placed roundhouse kick. Their early years together. Shego raked her claws gently across each mark, realigning and reclaiming each piece of their checkered past, each encounter, for their here and now.

Kim turned into the sensation, her life readjusting before the fierce rolling ambition of the woman's touch. Her body was subject to the thief's mastery, an instrument being coaxed and stroked to a perfection higher than ever. Black lips seared the woman's name into her very being, the claws tracking petitions to her soul. The comet-powered beauty pushed her slim legs higher, higher, bending her backwards. Her knees now above her head, her body curving taut above her own torso, the weight balanced on the back of her shoulders. A velvet tongue delved into her core above her, the musky sweet mix of their mingled ardour running, dripping down onto her flushed and gasping face.

The woman's shoulders held her in place, supporting her precarious position, claws running with the winds of passion across her sides, her breasts, her belly. Suddenly, claws gripped her wrist, a hand she hadn't even realized that she was using to hold herself open for the thief, and moved the fingers over her rippling stomach, her rough pubic hair to the moist folds.

"Wait..., no... no..." Kim gasped even as the claws enjoined her to continue. Kim's eyes were screwed shut from the pleasure pooling within her. But she felt safe, somehow. She felt at peace with herself, able to brave the unknowns about herself.

And tonight, Shego was in charge.

Her fingers began to move of their own volition, in response to the woman's desire. They stroked and rubbed and kneaded upon the thief's command. The intermingling of passion dripped unrelentingly onto the the teen's face. It was as if her fingers were no longer her own, but an extension of thief's vitality. Before long, Shego began to stroke the girl's flushed and sweating face, still propping her up with a single hand on the small of her back as Kim curled and writhed under the ministrations of her own traitorous fingers.

"Sexy..." Kim heard the woman's husky voice. "You're so sexy... too sexy..."

Suddenly, it felt as if the sun had been pressed against her working hands, her trembling fingers. A wail broke free from her engorged lips. The heat was pouring indescribably incandescent flame into her, molten and glowing, winding her tighter and tighter. On and on it teased her, her rapture running in sparkling rivulets down her heaving body. There was a resistance, a sudden plateau of feeling, the growing meniscus of tension before the overflow.

Kim shrieked as the frenzied passion overtook her. The woman held her fast, drawing her release on and on with knowing touches, her body bucking and twisting with the committed force of pleasure. Her scalp tingled, her toes curled as her entire body convulsed, her essence splattering onto her chin and lips. She gurgled and groaned, her teeth clamping tight; her muscles ached from such prolonged paroxysms.

Kim was unsure how long she lay there, feeling empty, feeling cleansed, breathless from such delicious labour. Shego lounged beside her, stroking her gently in a gesture of intimacy, rather than desire. Kim blinked away the tears that had gathered in her eyes.

Kim turned to the woman.

"Shego..."

"Yes?"

"Can... can I kiss you?" The dark haired woman snorted in a fit of humour.

"What? Why do you need to ask that?"

"Because... I dunno, I wanted to say it... to let you know, being here with you, is special to me, something precious..." Shego looked down at the girl, her head propped up with a hand. As flushed as she was from their recent activity, Shego blushed an adorable darker shade of green.

"Yeah, okay," the woman mumbled, suddenly embarrassed.

Kim looked up, and placed a hand against Shego's cheek, and held it there. She looked deep into those glowing green eyes that had somehow, become all the world she ever wanted. That in the circle of this contradictory woman's arms, she felt like a ship come home to port after a long tempestuous voyage. And at that moment, Kim came to a decision. For however long she had with this wonderful, snarky, villainous thief, long or short, she would never, ever regret the time that they shared. It was a weird, calming sadness that filled her with a tremulous joy. Kim reached up and drew the woman's lips down. Before they touched, she whispered two words.

"I'm home."


	21. 4ever Lyrics

**4ever**  
**by Max Martin and Lukasz Gottwald**  
**Performed by The Veronicas**

Here we are so whatcha gonna do  
Do I gotta spell it out for you  
I can see that you got other plans for tonight  
But I don't really care

Size me up you know I beat the best  
Tick tock no time to rest  
Let 'em see what they're gonna see  
But tonight  
I just don't really care

Come on baby we could live forever  
Let me show you all the things we could do  
You know you wanna be together  
And I wanna spend the night  
With you (yeah yeah)  
With you (yeah yeah)  
Come with me tonight  
We can make the night last  
Forever  
Oh-oh

I seen it all I got nothin' to prove  
Come with me baby just make your move  
Follow me and let's leave it all behind  
Tonight  
Like we just don't care  
Let me take you on the ride of your life  
That's why I said  
All right  
They can see what they wanna see  
'Cause tonight  
I just don't even care

Come on baby we could live forever  
Let me show you all the things we could do  
You know you wanna be together  
And I wanna spend the night  
With you (yeah yeah)  
With you (yeah yeah)  
Come with me tonight  
We can make the night last  
Forever

Let's pretend you're mine  
We could just pretend, we could just pretend yeah yeah  
You got what i like  
You got what I like, I got what you like oh  
Come on  
Just one taste and you want more  
So tell me what you're  
Waiting for

Come on baby we could live forever  
Let me show you all the things we could do  
You know you wanna be together  
And I wanna spend the night  
With you (yeah yeah)  
With you (yeah yeah)  
So  
Come with me tonight  
we can make the night last  
Forever (yeah)

Come on baby we could live for ever  
(Forever)  
Let me show you all the things we could do  
Know you wanna be together  
(Together)  
And I wanna spend the night  
With you (yeah yeah)  
(You, you)  
With you (yeah yeah)  
(Yeah)  
So  
Come with me tonight  
(Yeah yeah)  
We can make the night last  
Forever  
Uh-oh-oh-oh


	22. Chapter Eleven: 4ever

A/N:originally this chapter was going to be Crazy in Love by Beyoncè Knowles and Jay-Z. But then RevSrVixena turned me on to The Veronicas. After listening to their album, I realized that 4ever had the right mix of bitter sweetness that matches Shego's troubled malaise regarding her relationship with Kim; that each meeting is like a "last/only night together". So, just wanted to thank you, RevSrVixena. Also, the previously planned history of Anne and James has shifted somewhat, so it's different from what was discussed a while ago with Love Robin. Surprise, LOL!

* * *

**4ever  
**http :// www. you tube .com/watch?v=Q3gjPMv6DT8  
_by sweetPixiesmile_

* * *

Shego's head hurt. A lot. Why? Because she'd been banging it against cold metal struts, that's why.

_Why did you do it? What is it with that girl that every time you get close to her, you turn into mush? Can't you control yourself this once to just do the right thing? Can't you see she's making you soft?_

_You had the perfect opportunity to cut this off and now, look at you. You're getting in deeper, pushing yourself down into the quicksand. This keeps up, good luck about it turning out well._

Shego stalked past the bruised and groaning henchmen in the hovercarrier. Now post mission, several of the men had removed their tight fitting cowls and glasses. Many were sporting black eyes, bloody noses and bruises. The super-powered villainess smirked slightly, seeing Eddie stopping beside each cluster of men, doing his sympathetic superior routine. She walked slowly to the cockpit, taking in the conversations of the squad.

"....new girl..."

"Dunno, the doofus's girlfriend?"

"Dude, she's like the same age as my daughter, that's just gross."

"...lost his pants.... again."

"... hits better than him..."

"....hey you smell that?"

"What?"

"I thought I smelled twat or something..."

"Dude, that's just wrong."

At that last exchange, Shego walked faster, sliding the cockpit door open and stepping through. Drakken looked up expectantly as she slammed the cockpit door shut and took the pilot's chair.

"Well?"

"Well we haven't lost anybody, this time, so we won't have to pay Hench's incarceration extraction fee."

"Well," the blue scientist sigh, crossing his arms. "That's something at least. Ever since Hench started charging that Personnel Incarceration Fee, the henchmen business has been on a downward spiral, let me tell you! We can't hire as many men as before, cutting down our success rate, cutting down on our ability to hire... madness!" Drakken began muttering to himself, hunching as he pulled out his cue cards and making notes about the night. Shego hesitated, surreptitiously lifted her hand, and embarrassing as it was, gave them a sniff.

_Gawd, Pumpkin sure smells great... I gotta shower first thing._

Shego replayed the night in her mind as she eased the hovercarrier smoothly into their flight path. She'd been all set to cut the girl loose, dump her goody-goody ass and take off. But she hadn't. The girl was drawing her deeper and deeper, and Shego, trapped by the flow of the teenaged hero's passionate candour, had simply followed along. After all their promises that they would do their best to keep themselves in line when on the clock, they had some sort of weird... fight-sex? Sex-fight?

_Whatever._

Not only that, in a fit of emotion, she'd given Kim her personal tracker. Not just some sort of passive GPS chipped module, but a full communicating device that tapped into her phased quantum network, to send her information anytime, anywhere. It gave the girl an "in," a stable point of contact. And where there was a stable entry point...

_Arrrrrrggghhhhh!!!!_

She might as well have given the girl a gun chambered with a bullet etched with her name on its casing.

Shego banged her head against the control panel.

"Shego, are you alright?" Drakken's voice grated across her thoughts.

"Uh, yeah. Too bad we didn't find this guy who stole your nano-whatever." Shego deflected.

"Yes, and Kim Possible had to interfere. We weren't even trying to do anything!" The Doctor glanced at his henchwoman again. "You don't look to worse for wear. Good thing you were there to keep her off my back. I assume you ran into her?

"Oh yeah. We got down and dirty."

_R-e-e-e-a-a-al dirty..._

So now, Shego was right back where she started, dreading her time at the lair. Wondering if the dreams would catch up to her again. She couldn't take just any drugs. She'd need something stronger than an elephant tranquilizer to put her so deep under that she'd be nearly comatose so that she wouldn't dream; her glow power would simply assimilate the medicine. So where she rarely got sick, when she did, it was invariably worse for her than most other people. Should she run the check on Kim and her parents? Hmmmm, maybe... naw. Kim probably wouldn't appreciate it.

_More time with the punching bag, I guess... But damn, Kimmie smells good._

* * *

"Why'd you do it, Shego?"

She turned around and around. She was cold and clammy. It was pitch black but for the dirt path before her. Shadows in the dark swayed, the sound of a rustling wind that held no breeze. She was dressed in her catsuit; the green panels more black than green, for some reason.

"Why'd you do it, my love?" The achingly hollow voice floated to her, an awfully familiar voice...

"P-princess?" Shego turned around even as the shadows moved more quickly.

"Was it really worth it?" The voice was filled to the brim with suffering, the crackling unhappy distress of a wounded heart. It sounded.... farther. Shego felt a shiver of worry climb up from her the base of her spine, curling in a cold contusion in her lower abdomen. It was cold. Why was is so cold?

"Kim!" Shego turned around once again. Where the fuck was she?

"It... it hurts...."

"Kim where are you!" It didn't matter. Shego sprinted down the narrow path; branches whipped by, clinging to her, pulling at her as she ran pell-mell. She ran until her sides were harsh burning brands and her legs felt like lead. She stumbled and fell heavily. When she looked up, she found herself in a weird pale replica of Kim's room. The villainess stood up carefully from the top of the stairs that led down from Kim's attic room. Yet it wasn't her room. There was no colour. Sounds were hollow and muffled.

Sitting on the bed, her back turned toward the green-tinted woman, was Kim in her old purple top and black flared bottom mission clothing.

"C'mon Shego, you're going to be late." Kim said, her head dipping as she spoke. Shego approached cautiously.

"Late? Late for what?"

Kim turned and Shego stifled a scream. The teen's face was a mass of burnt scars. The entire front of her purple top was stained black, tatters hanging in shreds. Dark, thick blood dripped from gaping wounds, wounds that ran in parallel lines, criss-crossing the girl's disembowelled torso. The girl's jawbone gleamed through her claw-marked cheek.

"Why, my funeral of course. The one you arranged for me."

"No... no, I wouldn't...I wouldn't..." The villainess looked down at her cold clammy hands, realizing that the chill was not due to the temperature. The green squares of her harlequin patterned catsuit was splattered, soaked with blood, her claws, sticky with gore.

Shego woke with a gasp.

_Gawddammit_, she sighed, as the woman rolled over to get some sleep. She punched the pillow a few times and flopped over. After a moment, she sighed and got up. She turned to her handheld and after depressing the power button, the tiny screen flickered to life.

Ever since her first failed romance, Shego had taken to doing thorough background checks. Although her hacking skills were slightly rusty from disuse, constantly upgrading and maintaining the quantum network kept her abreast of blackhat, script kiddie and general hacker activity. She quickly set up a number of injections into spy agency satellites, bouncing tungsten laser arrays off solar panels. Satellites were designed to remain online and accessible even in the event of a system crash of the on-board computer. They were made to withstand cosmic dust impacts that could put a hole the size of a micron through the entire array, but some of these weren't cosmic. There was a slight gap between the full down time and the reboot that was the perfect opportunity for implanting quantum taps. Shego smiled thinking back to the hidden payload she had snuck onto the last Russian launch, a number of tiny magnetic quantum receivers. She'd detonated the remote rocket as it entered orbit, a few seconds after the bugs had detached themselves. It was all over the news. Masked by the new massive debris field, her nascent network of tiny operatives latched onto numerous satellites.... perfecting her hacking network. It was just simply luck that a pair of bugs had infiltrated a National Security Agency rig.

Of course, the satellites frequently passed bogus information in a paranoid effort to determine the security of each satellite, but most of those were geared toward political issues rather than a single selfish thief.

After about an hour of configuring her search, she sent off the quantum packet and slid herself into bed. With the search running, she fell asleep within minutes.

~ * ~ ~ * ~ ~ * ~ ~ * ~ ~ * ~ ~ * ~ ~ * ~ ~ * ~ ~ * ~ ~ * ~  
_  
Weave left, weave right, duck, spin kick._

_Right, left, jump, double fist strike._

_Sliding foot stop, double leg sweep into a five-forty triple butterfly._

Shego's lungs burned, her legs and arms ached from the workout she was getting.

Several synthodrones stood back, leaving the ring as Shego struck each critical point. The drones were good as dummies, but not very efficient or creative when it came to fighting systems. Humans, at their laziest were still light years faster and better at assimilation and interpretation of information. As she struck more and more synthodrones in their designated critical failure zones, the "fallen" shuffled themselves backwards as the "revived" ones pressed forward.

_Duck, double strike, leg sweep, kip-up kick, flip-kick._

Shego was practically running on automatic at this point, having fought Drakken's synthodrones for about ten minutes and already demolishing the fourth wave of "assailants". Now, if Drakken would be able to get is hands on AI specialist Doctor Freeman, the drones would be more of a challenge. But sadly, that boat had sailed, after Princess's brothers had armed Doctor Freeman's appliances.

_Double hammer throw, elbow-palm-fist combo, spin kick, spin kick, spin kick and release._

In less than another five minutes, Shego put a hand on a cocked hip, holding one hand up to examine her claws. Drakken came storming over from the weight machines.

"I simply don't understand it! I made more modifications and you beat them in even less time than before?" His outrage was answered by cheers and whistles. Around the gym, red suited goons hooted and hollered. Some even cheered "Boss! Boss! Boss!" The blue toned man smiled indulgently, preening.

"Well, thank you all. I know I am all that. You may return to your duties." With a wave, Drakken marched out of the gym. No one paid him any mind, most eyes on the catsuited woman.

"Fourteen twenty-three, boss," said Eddie as he walked up, Shego buffed her nails on her chest. "That's two minutes better and against ten additional shitbags- uh, Synthos." The goon shook his head as the synthodrones stood up in unison and began to filter out into the hallway, on their way back to storage. "You were really on today, boss." He held out a hand with a thick stack of bills. Shego waved it off.

"Put that in the Friday night pool. Maybe if we can break into Cleveland territory, we can go somewhere else other than Karaoke, eh? Maybe even hit the bar and shoot some pool?" Shego raised her voice as she announced her generosity. The red suited men roared in approval.

"Alright, alright," Shego waved at them dismissively. "Just because I won again doesn't mean you guys can slack off with training!" The men groaned, but many of the older hands were already on the track. Shego watched until all the protesting men were running before flexing her left hand.

"You okay there boss?" Eddie asked curiously. "You're in a real mood today."

"Mood, huh?"

"Good, mood I mean."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah." Eddie stood there for a moment glancing at the boss periodically but not meeting her eyes.

"What? Do I have syntho-goo in my hair again?"

"Uh, naw, boss, you're just so... peppy. Since California."

"And?"

"Looks like the fresh air and the fight at the Cathedral really did you good," Eddie shrugged. Shego smirked in reply.

"Feelin' good, Eddie, feelin' good," she rallied, slapping the man hard on his back. "I'm going to shower. Keep on the guys. Remember, you've got to get Marco to move faster. Julian, he needs to be more decisive. Just keep them on the drills, then some slow sparring."

"Gotcha, boss." Shego slapped his shoulder a second time and left, the gym door hissing shut behind her.

But as she walked back to her new quarters, an armament room off a long twenty foot corridor from the hangar, she felt exposed, transparent. If Eddie was noticing a change in her, how long would it be until they figured out that her change in demeanour occurred after each clash with Team Possible. Eddie might understand it, but he'd also have to report it to Hench.... and once Hench knew, she was as good as "outted" to the whole villain community... and villains were notoriously touchy about turncoats and people they considered traitors. Compounding the problem, for years, she'd been the poster girl for henchmen, someone the grunts of the villain world looked up to. She'd worked her way to the top from the very bottom. A girl, barely legal, sticking her ass into a testosterone filled industry. Worse, she'd made a name for herself on the "other side", a turncoat from the hero world. And she had clawed and burned her way to sidekick status, literally one step beneath the headlining villain. She was the one that they pointed to, thinking that they too could one day become "sidekick".

What would happen if they found out? Well, obviously her villain career would be over. They'd probably issue a priority one termination order, kill on sight. She'd have to lay low. At least she wasn't going to have to worry about them bombing her family or something. Villains had a specific code they followed, that the new association president, Senor Senior Senior, had pushed hard for.

Drakken would never understand. He had his own issues to work through but with Shego, the dumb lug really thought of her as family. She'd have to consolidate and secure her funds, more than ever. The blackhat community would jump on the bounty, while she would be left in criminal no-man's-land, with no support and perhaps only a handful of favours that she could trust to call. And the whitehats would be more than willing to turn a blind eye while she was taken down, having humiliated them for so many years.

Shego stalked through the hangar. She turned and walked down the corridor to her new room. Maybe she'd feel better after a shower. Perhaps the rolling discomfort inside her would calm itself.

_Not likely..._

After a nice long, hot shower, and unravelling her hair from a black kevlar woven shower cap, Shego lounged on a brown couch the henchmen had dug up from somewhere in the base. It had the musty smell of disuse, slightly funky from water damage, but served well enough until Drakken's lair self-destructed... again.

The super-powered woman picked up her handheld and checked the progress of her search routines. Noting the completed status, she pulled up the report and scrolled through the results, a search she had put together on James and Anne Possible.

The more she read, the more worried she became.

Very, very worried.

James Timothy Possible's list of hits spanned all the way back into the early sixties, with photos, records and medical reports. All links seemed to pass muster of her extremely paranoid filtering matrix. Birthdays, newspaper clippings, the dozens upon dozens of events that people took for granted, filled out the the person that was James Possible. The search went back a few dozen generations, with accomplishments too widely known to be forge-able. Born James Timothy Possible in Gainsborough Air Force Base, travelled around as an army brat. Older brother Cory "Slim" Possible. Sisters Florence and Margery. Dorothy "Slinger" Possible, retired ROTC, SAS, NSA. Divorced from Charles Karmin, now in upstate Tennessee. The report went on and on.

But Anne Nonna Maus... Anne was another matter. All the official documentation was there: school records, medical files, birth certificates seemed to be in order. But digging deeper, the Anne Maus path didn't explode exponentially like Jame's tree, but stopped, three generations in; of those other generations, the records were simply officious. At that point, the data self destructed, like a house of cards under the hurricane of her scrutiny. Contracts. Contacts. Lists of friends. Announcements in local papers of nuptials, obituaries. Airline tickets. Credit ratings. Property Deeds. Mortgages. Tax returns. All the little details of the mundane life, nonexistent. All the little holes that add up into a big fucking red light.

It wasn't a bad job. It could fool even the most stringent of credit checks. Even a decent security level search. But not her. Not her.  
_  
Shit._

* * *

Shego slid silently across the yard, her quick feet leaving no indentations along the grass. Why had the red-head buzzed her? Was it serious? Was she okay? When Shego's communication stud on her collar vibrated slightly, she felt a shock of wild panic. She'd rushed through a training session, did an emergency flight check on her hoverpod and lit out of Drakken's lair in Sweden to see what was up with Kim. On the way she monitored as many radio bands as she could for any word of the world saving hero. She'd landed the hoverpod two blocks away from the girl's home and sprinted the rest of the way to the Possible residence, where she spotted the red-head slowly chewing on some sort of sandwich. Her initial thoughts were a schizoid experience.

_Gawd, her cheeks are just so adorable._

_What the fuck is wrong with her?_

_She likes juice, hunh?_

_Why the hell did she buzz me if she didn't need my help?_

_She looks so good._

_I just flew three hours across the Atlantic for what?_

As the girl popped the last morsel of sandwich into her mouth, the thief decided that she better talk to the teen. She leaped up, seized the eavestrough and flipped onto the tiling just outside Kim's room. She carefully pulled window open and slipped into the girl's bedroom. Shego smirked a bit and took a deep breath.  
_  
Smells just like her..._

The woman resisted an overwhelming urge to throw herself on the girl's bed and roll around, giggling madly. When it struck the thief that footsteps were coming up the stairs, the green and black catsuited woman slid behind the stairs, by some curtains and next to a desk littered with notes and books, one of which had on the spine "Of Human Bondage". The red head came shuffling up the stairs; the green-tinted woman ruthlessly crushed the desire to hug the teen, and opted for cool and collected instead.

"What's shaking, hot stuff?"

The red-head froze, taking sudden gasps of air as the girl turned around and jumped at her. Shego barely had time to braced herself before the petite hero barrelled into her. She felt a worm of guilty pleasure from the tightness of the girl's embrace.

"Ack!" Shego grunted, just to be annoying.

"I missed you." The hero's slightly pouting face was so adorable, the woman couldn't help tease the girl.

"Kimmie misses her green and black cuddle-buddie?"

"Well, yeah!" This time, Shego predicted that Kim would tighten her hold. The woman drew more air into her lungs before the teen's arms seized her again.

_When did this kid get so strong?_

"I can't stay long, so I hope this is important."

"Well, I missed you."

"It's only been about thirty hours since California, Pumpkin."

"I know, but I just really missed you! I really wanted to see you." Shego could feel the warmth worming its way across the veneer of indifference and felt her cheeks warm at the girl's passionate words.

_Not good, she's under my skin in less than sixty seconds!_

She got a grip on the girl's arms and forced them away reluctantly. She then turned around crossing her arms in a huff. Her control was slipping. Things were getting out of hand; she needed to lay down the law, cement the ground rules before their reputations went down the toilet.

"Look, Princess, I'm not just some genie you can summon on a freaking whim!" But only a moment after the words left her mouth, a warm lithe body pressed against her, arms wrapping around her in a tighter embrace.

"Oh, I think I could rub you the right way." The purred words sent a tingling thrill into the thief as the girl leaned even closer. Kim shifted higher and there was a shock of pleasure that skewered Shego's resolve as teeth gently nipped at her earlobe. She gave up an involuntary gasp.

"I'm not that easy." Even to herself, her voice was tinged with arousal.

"I know." A warm, moist wetness was trailing lazily up around her aural ridge. "It took me over three years to get you to show me some magic."

_No.... no.... don't lose it! Do NOT! Oh Gawd...._

"Kim," Shego gasped as a soft breath wafted into her ear. Shego bit her lower lip, wrestling with the sudden, roaring trembling within. The longer she let the girl touch her, the weaker her resolve was.

_How could a girl get to me like this? Just with a simple touch here, a little lip and tongue action there... and what action.... No, stay focused, stay..._

Shego's jaw clenched for a moment as she ran through one of her mental discipline sutras. She barely made it to the end, but with the final mental syllable, she reached out with the claw of her will and deliberately crushed the burgeoning passion. Didn't the girl care that what they were doing could potentially ruin the both of them? Perhaps even send either or both of them to the morgue when villains the world over heard about such a thing, and declared open season on them? Or that entire crime fighting syndicates would lose their confidence in a teenaged hero since her lesbian relationship might come across as deviant? Forget all the red flags that her search had turned up about one Anne Nonna Maus...

"Kim!" Shego struggled for a moment and finally broke free of the girl's embrace. "We can't keep.... doing that every time we meet! I mean what happened in California was great, but we might have been found out by the hound Betty's set on you. Hell, I'm pretty sure one of the henchmen could still smell you on me!"

"I know." The expression on Kim's face sent a quiver of guilt across the woman's resolve. "It's just that, we hadn't seen each other for so long... I just couldn't help myself!" She stared at the red-head for a moment, something within her softening under the girl's earnest gaze and nodded.

"It was really fun for me too, Pumpkin," _and that's all I'll admit to_, "but if we're going to make this work then we can't just jump each others' bones every time we clash. I mean, people are going to start noticing that we're getting hickeys and not bruises..."

"Really, is there a difference?" Shego immediately smothered the giggle that sprung to her lips at the hero's words as the girl sat down on her bed. The dark-haired beauty turned and leaned against the girl's book laden desk.

"Okay," Shego snorted, "maybe not for us." She sighed. "But Kim, we've both spent years building our reputations. What we're doing,... what's happening between us, people aren't going to get it. And it's not just who I am that's on the line, hey? Besides, Joe Public's just as quick to tear down as they are to put on a pedestal. Do you even get that?"

Kim sat silently for long moments. Shego could see the girl turning her words over.

_C'mon Kimmie, you know I'm right. _

Public opinion was like crawling into bed with a serial killer suffering from bi-polar disorder and multiple personalities. In their rush to consume, their desperate search for the next thrill, the next story, the next distraction, Public Interest ruined people in an instant, drove daggers into any relationship to tear it apart. All for entertainment. And they called her a stone cold bitch? The collective mindset was far more psychotic than anything she'd even done. Shego had always lived for the passion of the hunt, the revel of the kill when a target had been subjugated and secured. But she did it for personal, emotional, hell, even professional reasons. She could never systematically destroy someone with such impersonal disregard.

"I get it," the girl finally said, slowly. Shego shifted and began to smile before the girl continued. "And all I know is, I want you in my life, no matter the cost. I've been preparing all the people that need to know on a need to know basis... Haven't you seen my DVD yet?"

"Huh, what?" the woman blinked. Shego was still reeling from the girl's words. Wanting to include the almost anti-social thief in her popular teen hero life? The woman's mind whirled with unfamiliar feelings, feelings that tore at the walls she'd erected around herself. It was a moment before the woman realized that the girl had asked her a question. "No. No, I haven't. It's impossible to get any privacy in the lairs. And my DVD player... uh, was damaged a few weeks ago, and I haven't replaced it."

_Okay, that was just a totally lame answer. Is she going to call me on it?_

"Well, that's okay. But, it would mean a lot to me if you'd watch it when you have the chance." Shego sighed in relief before Kim hit her with the second half of a one-two punch. "But this means you owe me. It took me a whole week to put that together for you."

"Kim..." Shego looked into the deep green pools of the girl's eyes and felt guilt slice right through her. She could not believe this was happening, that the girl had in the space of twenty minutes made her feel such primal urges that could so completely undermine her mental fortitude. "Fine. What is it?"

"I want you to have lunch with my family."

_What? Omigawd, what? She didn't just say... did she?_

Shego opened her mouth to respond, but each time, those deep green eyes would stop the words of denial, the snarky reply.

_I... why is this happening, why can't I keep her at arms length?_

"Kimmie..." the villainess finally croaked.

"I've already told them that we're dating." the red-head continued. The salvos the girl was firing continued to hit the woman, knocking her off-balance.

_How did I ever lose control of this?_

Shego's panic was a rising maelstrom. Her will was currently engaged in holding herself still; she held herself rigid, determined not to run away like a little pussy.

"We're having a cookout on Saturday. My dad's probably going to be doing a meatfest, so if you're vegan or anything, you better tell me." Suddenly something Kim had said finally clicked with her.

"Wait! Did you just say that they know we're d-d-d," Shego snapped her mouth shut.

"I told them you're my girlfriend. Why?"

"And they're... okay... with that?" The comet-powered woman was completely flabbergasted. Most girls she knew was one sob story after another, of how their families had disowned them, how their friends had treated them differently, how they had to find refuge in the arms of a girlfriend, how the stress had caused the first open relationship to self-destruct. And now Kim was telling her that her parents had simply accepted their daughter's declaration. Not only that, but being in a relationship with an internationally wanted criminal? And her mom possibly a fucking mole for, like, maybe, the fucking KGB? "That you're a lesbian? That I'm a felon? That you're dating a lesbian felon? A woman who's put you in the hospital more times than Michael Jackson's had plastic surgery?" Shego put her hands to her head; she could feel a headache coming on. For some inexplicable reason, the red-head's face pinked slightly.

"Well, yeah, I guess. At least, I mean, they haven't grounded me or anything... It was my dad who reminded me that I needed to ask you about your diet."

"Gawd! You Possibles are simply not normal!" The thief muttered under her breath, but Kim caught it.

"You Go's should talk," Kim giggled at the woman's panic stricken muttering. Shego shot a look at the sniggering girl.

_Once this goes public, I am so dead._

"So who else knows we're an item? Am I going to see this in Villain's Quarterly, along with a revocation of membership, delivered by deathray?"

"Everyone I've told, I trust." Shego stared at Kim for a moment. The one thing she knew was that there was no one without a price, no one you could trust. The least of all, family.

"You're too trusting, Kim! Can you really trust them? I mean... Betty for fuck's sake!" She could see the glazed incomprehension in the girl's eyes. Was this kid so sheltered that she couldn't understand that they were setting themselves up for a fall?

"Yes. I can. Trust is a two way street, y'know."

"I don't trust people Kim. No one. Ever! That's how I've survived! Any moment I can be double crossed, every deal can always go south once the target's in the bag. That's my world, the real world, Pumpkin!" The hero was silent, digesting her words. Those dark green eyes stared at the floor. Shego felt a sudden urge to hug the girl, but stood her ground. She had to drive home the need for caution.

"Does... does that... include m-me?" the girl forced out. Shego looked away, her glowing eyes serious.

"I don't trust anyone."

And suddenly, something within the woman fractured. Something small, something hard, something intangible, yet felt so important. It rose up like a transparent film and clung to her, a feeling she'd hadn't felt for a long, long time. It coloured and painted every corner of her, leaving her nowhere to hide, no where to run.

Regret.

It was regret. As those words left her lips, that insidious little monster reached out and sank its needle like claws into her psyche, causing her to stumble from her self-imposed emotional exile, forced her to look at the sudden onslaught of grief and confusion she had sown with those four little, tiny, minuscule words.

Shego clamped her lips tight to prevent an apology from leaking out, firmly grinding the insistent feeling down.

"Then," the girl said, her words stammering with repressed emotion, those intoxicating deep green eyes lifting, pinning her where she stood. "Then, could I j-just... b-be with you... until you tell me t-to... get lost...?"

And in those few words, the regret exploded into full fledged guilt.

Shego had very dim views on heroes. She had even been one herself. She had seen that they were just as fearful, as tortured as any villain. They were worse than villains, because they were forced to adopt a veneer of righteousness; they were forced to lie to themselves about their own darkness and their own predilections. They were prisoners of their own making, stunted and eventually crushed by the weight of expectation and false humility.

She had mortally wounded the girl, she knew. Yet the girl,... a real hero, not one of those fair weather whiners, who flipped their priorities, emotions, prejudices and morals on the grounds of emotional distress, who had to cling to their sanity because of the unrelenting forces that tore them in diametric directions. Kim was pure; the woman wasn't really sure why she had this impression of the teen. She was pure because whatever came, she assimilated the events into her consciousness and simply let go of what did not or could not be held on to in the light of her morals. She was a hero, down to the very core of her. Even cut to the quick with such cruel words, the girl simply looked her in the eye and forgave her.

Kim, a beautiful, lively, heart on her sleeve girl, had in a single sentence, forgiven her.

FORGIVEN HER!

"Kimmie..." The girl's face shone in the bright sunlight, her lips trembling even as she gazed in pathetic defiance at the thief. Shego stared at the girl's face, for long moments, feeling a titanic shift in the the foundation of her mind. Kim was absorbing her. She was hooking the tendrils of her affections into the cracks of the super-powered woman's stone cold heart, pulling them wider and seeding them with blossoms of hope. She shook herself, trying to clear the cobwebs from her mind.

"You know how I hate family stuff. I was never good at it. I don't even like people. Hell, you're the only one I can stand to be around for more than a few hours..." Shego slapped her forehead with an palm. She could not believe she was doing this. "Fine. Yeah, I'll come to your little shindig."

_I'm going to get something out of this... what to do, what to do..._

"But..." Shego continued with an evil smirk, "I want us to go out afterwards. Lunch with the folks, then we go out. And we're not going to be home until morning. Got it?" She chuckled at the adorable flush that lit Kim's face and decided to leg it before the girl raised any objections; leaving now would also give her the last word, and unconsciously, she needed that. The thief opened the window and swung a shapely leg over the sill.

"W-wait!" Kim called to her, coming to her feet. "Where are we going? What am I going to wear?" Shego slipped out, letting the heavy curtain swing closed. She stayed close to the window.

_One._

_Two._

Kim pushed the curtain aside and came to a wide-eyed, squeaking stop as she realized that the comet-powered beauty was only centimetres away.

"I'll take care of that Princess. You just be ready," Shego whispered as she seductively leaned closer, her breath slipping sensually across the immobile, wide-eyed girl's lips, before swooping in for passionate contact. She broke the kiss, wishing she could hold it longer.

"See you Saturday, Pumpkin!" she called over her shoulder. She heard the girl slump to the ground as she flipped gracefully off the roof. The thief hummed in anticipation as she hurried back to her hoverpod.

* * *

Shego was nothing if not a ball of jangled nerves. The weekend loomed in the horizon, like a shadow in the desert. Was it a dust storm of destruction, or an life giving oasis? She leaned toward the former and hoped to all that was evil that it would be the latter.

The first thing she needed to do was figure out where she was going to take the globetrotting teen hero. The girl had been to more exotic locales than the latest edition of adventure reality shows. So... maybe not "exotic" meaning foreign... perhaps something that Shego felt would be outside the goody-goody's life experience.... like maybe a club... with dancing....

The problem was that there was a shortage of clubs that Shego considered even decent, that she wouldn't have to continually be glancing over her shoulder for the local authorities or their well-paid enforcers. So it would have to be in one of Shego's "no-work-zones."

She also didn't want to spend half the night simply travelling to the location. Which pretty much only left one spot.

_Gawd dammit!_

Go City was one of her safe-zones, places where she didn't "work". Places that she had refused to work. But going to Go City meant confronting a part of her past that for all her reassurances that she had long put to rest, the emotions and memories tied to that place still rankled. She sighed. Well, _that_ club then. She closed her eyes, sitting on her new bed, sheets so new they still crinkled when she lay down, imagining what the promised night might be like.

She was bound to run into some of her old crew. How would that go? It had been years since she saw some of them. Definitely some fans. And at a club that exclusive, there would be the press, news-hounds and gossip-gurus that would just love to make their Pulitzer on a story of the thief and the hero, out on a date. Of course, if she was taking the hoverpod, they could sneak past the first two floors which most reporters staked out in order to catch the grand entrance of a star or some other famous A list personality. Well, the girl probably didn't have any kind of party-wear.

So, a dress. Heck if she was going to do Pumpkin's dress, she might as well send her everything. The woman's mind began to whirl, thoughts of the ensemble she could put together for the little red-head... soon she was on the phone to a certain designer she knew in Milan.

The rest of the week passed with excruciatingly ponderous boredom. Her mind had been completely circumvented by the prospect of Saturday. Would she get along with the girl's parents? Were they really as open and understanding as Kim had led her to believe? Was Anne's mysterious past a good thing? Or a bad one? Perhaps. Perhaps that was why Kim was so trusting. Having grown-up in such a supportive and stable environment, the girl certainly took a much more optimistic view of human motivation and behaviour.

Shego, on the other hand, came from the school of kill first, no questions necessary. And it had worked well enough for her.

_It's just a barbecue! What's there to be nervous about?_

She was still asking herself that question for the millionth time as she lowered the hoverpod onto the front lawn of the Possible residence. Popping the cockpit bubble, she could already smell the gas barbecue. She wiped nervously at her slacks, tremors of anxiety making her mouth dry. She pulled a bottle of sparkling grape juice (Kim being underage, and a huge freaking goody-goody, would definitely NOT drink alcohol) and took a deep breath before leaping from the cockpit and turning on the optical stealth system. She made her way to the front door of Kim's house as the hoverpod shimmered from view, her eyes scanning the grass, the shrubbery, the building, the visible surroundings. In such a high state of tension, she fell into old habits, like counting escape routes and exits. Top floor, three windows, only one large enough. Chimney, from the first floor. Residential vents too small. Ground floor, three doors, five windows, patio door. Backyard, only a regular six foot wooden fence.

She drew in one more deep breath, exhaled slowly and pressed the doorbell. She could hear the sound of footsteps and the deadbolt of the door being drawn back.

She was met by the visage of a tall statuesque red-head, a gravitational presence against the fabric of reality. The woman regarded her with piercing blue eyes. Behind, she could see Kim pause on the flight of stairs at the tableau of her meeting the girl's mother for the first time in a social function.

"Shego," Anne's voice was crisp. Shego shifted slightly, her eyes trying to read the woman's body language. What her eyes told her was not good. Her eyes darted about, unconsciously plotting interior escape paths.

"Uh, hi, Missus Possible..." Shego resisted the urge to lick her lips. Then she suddenly recalled something that might break the disconcerting stare. "I brought some sparkling grape juice." she said, hefting the dark green bottle. Anne's eyes continued to rest on her, before eventually sliding to her offering; the neurosurgeon took the bottle and stepped aside.

"Thank you. Please, come in. Kim should... ah, here she is," Anne stopped as Kim thundered down the rest of the stairs and threw her arms around the green-tinted thief.

"Shego!" Kim greeted her ecstatically. Shego, unsure whether if she wanted to accept the embrace in front of the hero's own mother, hesitated. Her hands came up awkwardly and patted the enthusiastic red-head on the back.

"Uh... hi Prin-, uh, Kim." Her smile felt forced and stiff in front of the girl's sunny grin.

_What the hell? I'm a super villain, gawd dammit! Wanted in eleven countries, most dangerous woman alive!_

"I'll put this in the cooler," Anne said as she closed the door and disappeared toward the backyard.

Shego nearly let out a sigh of relief as Kim craned her head back and forth.

_Gotta get control!_

"Were you worried I wasn't going to- mmmph!" Soft tender lips captured her own. The sudden pleasure shocked the comet powered beauty out of her rattled nerves.

"Proper welcome kiss," the red-head giggled as the mint coloured woman tried to pull herself together.

"Yeah..." Shego came to with a jerk. "Uh... hi."

"And no, I wasn't worried," Kim linked arms with the black-haired beauty and guided her through the living room to the sliding doors that opened onto the backyard patio. She was still slightly dazed and was just going with the flow, although her mind continued to map the house floor plan.

"Really?"

"Nope. 'Cause you said you'd come," Kim grinned with supreme confidence. Shego grunted in reply. "C'mon, the gang's all here!"

"Wait-, gang?" Shego gasped incredulously as Kim threw open the patio door and pulled her into the backyard.

And into pandemonium.

The comet-powered woman's perspective tightened into a kaleidescope of colour and sound. The black girl, Monique, was there, calling something out as she approached. The buffoon was leaning over a cooler. He directed a question at her. Shego wasn't sure if she mumbled sort of response above the staccato hammering of her roaring pulse. The only thing that seemed to prevent her from completely leaving orbit was Kim's possessive hold on her arm, keeping her feet on the ground and flat-lining her escape response. Vaguely, she sensed James standing before a large brick and mortar grill and a dark, obsessive stare from a young girl, the new one...

_What the fuck....?_

Shego knew that this lunch was going to be hell on earth.

Yet lunch went off without a hitch. The black girl, Shego had only known as a name prior to this, engaged her in lively conversation. The comet-powered beauty was surprised and a little pleased that the girl had such exquisite taste in fashion; she had designed Kim's latest mission outfit so nicely that one of the Fashionistas had claimed the design as their own. Coupled with a clear, razor sharp wit and no qualms in using it, unbeknownst to the thief, she was making a fast friend. The two of them even poked a little fun at the red-head's previous mission gear, as if she was some sort of poster girl for MI6. Kim blushed and made comments about Shego's harlequin suit. The buffo- er, Ron, was actually charming in a geeky, dorky sort of way, and let loose with a discussion on why the naco was the perfect main course for every meal. The GJ dog was sullenly silent, giving off serious "bad cop" vibes. Kim's twin brothers reminded her of the Wegos and pestered her for a plasma demonstration. The girl with the glow saw Anne look at her before shooing off the "Tweebs," with a reminder about rules for plasma around the house. What kind of place was this that already had established ground rules for plasma experimentation?

When James placed the slice of grilled tenderloin before her, Shego hesitated. But seeing all the others eating from the same batch of beef, she cut herself a piece. The flavours that washed suddenly over her was exquisite.

_Well, if I die in the next ten minutes, at least it'll be on a great tasting meal and a full stomach._

"This steak is just am-a-a-a-zing, Mister Possible," Shego said, making conversation. James, the father, seemed to be much more civil and comfortable with her than the tense and silent Anne. Perhaps she could divide and conquer...?.

"Daddy takes pride in getting the steaks just right to everyone's tastes," Kim smiled. "He's so good at barbecues now, he's got it down to a science."

"Well, now Kimmie, it still took me a year to figure out the grill," the rocket scientist temporized.

"I've never had marinated steak before, though," Shego said. "How do you get it so good yet so tender?" She ignored the frantic headshakes of the two younger Possibles.

"The key is preparation." At these four familiar words, the twins groaned in unison, but was hushed by their mother. "You get a good cut of meat, like tenderloin, Grade A Prime. Make the sauce. Whatever you like, as long as it's tomato based. You can even use ketchup if you like. Just don't use anything fermented, it'll make the meat fall apart. Lots of garlic, a little onion. And a good brandy. I use Crown Royal, myself; some like it sweeter or dryer. Put the meat and a half ladle of sauce in a ziplock. Shake it a bit and throw it into the freezer. And when you need it, you've got marinated steak." James finished with a flourish of his hands, as if blessing the table with his knowledge. Anne remained silent, leaving a slight air of tension. In fact.... there was something.... familiar about the woman.... But Shego couldn't pin it down. Monique, Ron and the girl introduced as Lily conversed amongst themselves. Kim's mother was quiet, and the look in Kim's face when she glanced at the taller red-head sent warning signals all up and down the thief's spine.

As the food wound down, Anne suddenly spoke up.

"Shego, why don't you help me in the kitchen while the others clean up out here." The neurosurgeon gave her another of her patented piercing looks with her bright blue eyes..

"Sure, Missus Possible," Shego nodded. She wanted to get to the bottom of this and find out whether or not the mother was going to be a problem. Kim was obviously concerned. It seemed that the woman's near anti-social behaviour was atypical. Each guest helped stack the plates, chatting happily. Shego carried the heavier plates and bowls into the house; Anne carried the trays and cutlery. Inside the kitchen, Anne said nothing, arranging the plates and dirty dishes beside a deep, double sink. As she began to run the water, Kim brought in the last of the dishes. She stopped beside her mother.

"Mom, why don't I-"

"Help Ron with the volleyball net? Good idea, Kimmie." Kim paused at the interruption.

"Uh, yeah, it's okay, Pumpkin," Shego said, raising an eyebrow to Kim and glancing back at the medical doctor. Kim shrugged and went back outside with some hesitation and no little trepidation.

"I wash, you dry, okay?" Anne commanded.

"Sure."

The two worked silently and were done in ten minutes, much of the preparation mess having been cleaned before lunch. Shego finished drying the last dish with her hand glowing softly and handed the plate to Anne, who slipped it onto a stack in the cupboard beside the sink. The silence was beginning to bother the comet-powered woman and she was seriously considering taking one of her subconscious escape routes. The woman gestured to the kitchen table.

"Have a seat, Shego, we need to talk." Shego hesitated. Was it alright to threaten Kim's mom? She doubted that would go over well with the goody-goody.

_Okay, let's get her to lay down her cards._

"Sure." Shego sat with her back to the window, Anne taking the seat across from her. The woman watched her for a moment. Shego resisted the urge to squirm and met Anne's gaze with more calm than she felt.

"How old are you, Shego?"

"Twenty-five."

_Wait, what?_

"How many lovers have you had?"

"None."

_What the fuck...why am I..._

"Have you had many partners? Have you always been a lesbian? Are you clean?"

"Six. I'm bi, but haven't had a man in years. I keep a clean bill of health, see the doctor every year for tests."

_Fuck... fucking mind control!_

Anne watched her stew for a moment before taking a deep breath.

"What are your intentions with my daughter?"

_I'm gonna kill her! I don't care if you're her moth-_

"I intend to do right by her."

_Huh? What? Why'd I say that? That's not... true... is it?_

"I'm glad to hear that. This conversation is going to go in a much better direction than I feared." Anne paused, her eyes flicking down to the tabletop, then looking up resolutely. "Ever heard of Anna Liszt?"

_Wait-a-sec..._

"You mean The Analyst?"

"That's what the newspapers called her." Shego's eyes widened as she put one and one together and won the mother fucking lottery of hell.

_Oh...... oh SHIT...._

"Yeah." Anne smiled a small wistful smile.

"Mmm. You know what she used to do?"

"She was the winningest, most amazing villainess in the eighties. Her thing was information gathering and mind games. She stole the most famous artifacts from under the noses of private collectors and governments, and no one knew the difference. She dropped out of sight suddenly. Everyone assumed she'd died in a heist gone wrong."

Anne watched Shego carefully for a moment.

"I've got you sitting on one of my truth disks. I'm going to release you. Nothing rash, right?"

"I'm going to fucking burn you at the stake."

"I can always just stun you and do a mind wipe," Anne shrugged. Shego's scowl deepened.

"You bitch. Fine. I won't burn down the house."

Anne watched the green woman for another long moment more before raising a remote and pressing a green button with a nice short manicured thumb. A strange feeling shivered through her, causing her to squirm. As the veil of control dropped, anger and humiliation roared through her. She gripped the table, growling, willing herself to calm, breathing heavily. Plasma flickered fitfully from her hands, scorching the lacquered wood, the sharp claws leaving splintered indentations. She glared at the neurosurgeon.

"So you're The Analyst?" she gritted through her clenched teeth.

"That's a misnomer. Anna Liszt was the name, " Anne sighed. Even through her haze of aggression, Shego was stunned. She was sitting in the presence of a legend. The only major female villain who ever ran with the "big boys", and that was in the old days, when the women were weak-willed saps and the men where misogynistic chauvinists. The Analyst had commanded fear on par of any of the current cadre of villains. And here she was, Kimmie's mother?

"Still have a few toys around, hunh." Shego grunted sourly.

"I needed to make sure that you weren't in a plot to get my daughter. You know how it is. Family is family, after all." Anne waved a nonchalant hand.

Shego grimaced at the familiar words.

"Still fucking hate mind control," she muttered.

"And I'm really sorry about that." Anne seemed genuinely apologetic. "Truly. You have to admit these are exceptional circumstances."

Shego paused for a moment, considering. Yeah, if some villainess was trying to get in the pants of the Wegos, Shego would feel the same way, even if she didn't use one of Drew's mind control chips.  
She nodded in response.

"So... you... really like my Kimberly?"

Shego thought about lying, but Anne had already heard the truth. She groaned and put her head down, hoping the table top would cool the warmth of her flush.

"I... yeah. But..." She ended her reply with a deep groaning sigh.

"But it's complicated."

"Yeah."

"I remember when I first ran into James. Do you know he was a lot like your brother Hego?" Shego felt as if she'd been kicked into an electrified microwave tower... for a third time today.

"Huh? He was a hero? No way! He seems so.... I dunno, Lawrence Welk!"

"It was when he was in his 'hero' persona." Anne sat back with a small smile. "When I first saw him, he was such a geek. I was after a private collection that was on an international tour. Stolen from China by England during the Second Opium War, I believe. The Cold War was raging and China was looking to humiliate the West and their pet industry, Japan. They contracted me out. The target was part of a larger exhibit, and it was in Tokyo at the time. At any rate, I showed up at the museum with all the codes in my hands. A tall slim red-head bait?" Kim's mother chuckled with amusement. "It was so easy, it was like a vacation rather than work. I deactivate the alarms, looped the camera feeds, stunned the guards. But when I put my hands on the the Imperial Seal... my hands stayed glued to it! I couldn't figure it out." Anne giggled softly, which sent a shiver of consternation through Shego. She could not picture The Analyst giggling over anyone, least of all some guy. "Then James stepped out from the shadows in this geeky, homemade tinsel suit, shouting something about Ultraman. Our first fight. He's actually very good, trained by his mother. In the end, he agreed to let me go if he could date me." Anne laughed. "I said, 'Sure!' thinking I'd be out of there in a flash and he'd never see me again." The neurosurgeon sighed and shook her head ruefully. "Next day, in Go City, when I went back to my office at the Sister Bertrille Hospital, James strolls up with a bouquet of flowers. I was completely floored. He just came up and tried to charm me with some corny lines. It was really sweet. And he was persistent."

"I... can relate to that."

"It's a Possible trait. All commitment and wide-eyed innocence. We villainesses can't resist it. After I stood him up maybe the fifth time, I thought about it. At that point, I hadn't had a date since I was eighteen, let alone sex. I couldn't believe that I was starting to seriously consider his offer, but..."

"Hard to meet someone in villainy?"

"Hard to meet someone _anywhere_. Yes. At least he was tall. He was actually pretty strong, but in that wiry, rangy sort of way. And he had incredible endurance. We dated. Fell in love. Even though we still worked opposite sides of the law. I still remember some of our fights. The post-mission sex was even better." Shego flushed slightly at the woman's soft growl. Anne fell silent. Shego fidgeted slightly, increasingly uncomfortable.

"Uh... So what happened? Why'd you quit? Was it because...?"

"Because we found out I was pregnant. I think it was after the Solomon's Mine fight in the Savannah, but James thinks it was the Staff of Caligula in Rome. Anyway, we both stopped. We were a couple of kids out for a lark at that point. I would come up with outlandish schemes and James kept right up with me. We needed to stop. Besides, I wasn't really in it for the money or anything. I was in it for myself. And I wasn't about to put Kim in danger on some stupid heist."

"Uh... Is this going anywhere?" Shego said, still trying to get over sitting at a kitchen table in a suburban home with a villainess legend.

_Anne Possible, also known as Anna Listz! Holy fuck!_

"The point of what I'm saying is this. I know it can be hard. As long as you aren't going to do something villainous to Kim, I'll stand aside. If you work, then great. If not, too bad, so sad. I'm retired. Retired, understand?" Anne's blue eyes suddenly hardened. "Kim doesn't know anything, and if I know you, you've already done some digging on us. I will do anything to protect my family. Anything."

"Is this where you give me some crap about killing me if I hurt your little girl?" Shego snorted.

"Pain is part of life. We need it. And, no. If it comes to that, I wouldn't kill you."

"You'd make my life a living hell is that it? Well, you can-"

"I'd erase you."

"-stick your threat... Huh?"

"I wouldn't need to kill you. Don't you know? People are born a certain way, but in the end, who they are is determined by their experiences and memories. I wouldn't need to have you ventilated. By erasing your memories.... permanently... I'll have effectively killed you. No body to convict me. And if you really do something bad to Kim..." Anne leaned forward, a sudden spine tingling grin on her face. "I will cage you in your own mind. I will rewrite the dominant personality and you will watch yourself while away your life, no control, no way of communicating, a prisoner in your own fucking body, screaming away until your carcass gives out."

Shego suddenly had the sweats.

Anne lifted a hand slowly.

"But if you're very, very good to her.... I will teach Kim this." Anne's thumb and index finger pinched the fleshy web of Shego's pale green-tinted left hand.

Excruciating pleasure suddenly thundered through her, her libido shocked into overdrive. She could feel the sudden rush of moisture between her legs. What was only a few seconds seemed like several nuclear minutes to the glowing woman. Anne released the gasping woman.

"Sexual pressure points. Heard of it?"

Shego simply sat there gasping, her face a bright green. She nodded.

"I learnt many things in my travels, my personal study of the mind. James certainly appreciates it." Anne glanced out the window. "Do we understand each other?"

Shego nodded again, not trusting herself to speak. Anne stood up and left the kitchen, crossing the patio with a Cheshire grin.

After a few minutes, Kim scurried into the house and found Shego sitting at the kitchen table, blushing furiously and sweating. The girl plopped herself directly on the thief's lap, arranged the woman's hands on herself and clasped her own hands behind the slim green neck.

"Are you okay?" Kim asked, curiously.

"Yeah.... yeah, I'm okay. Damn Princess," Shego shook her head. "Your mom sure is a piece of work."

"I guess," Kim frowned slightly.

_I can't believe it... Kimmie, Anna Liszt's kid!_

Shego just sat there. Anne had certainly shown her some trust, even if it was in a classic villainous interview. Could she really trust the woman to do as she said? But Kim was the ultimate goody-goody. Could a true "heel-face-turn" villainess have raised such a child, guided her down this path? She'd fallen hard for this James Timothy Possible, fallen fatally, probably laughed all the way down.

_Like a certain someone I know...._

But would it stick? With her? Could life be like this, a picture of domestic bliss? Could life ever be like that for the two of them? With both sides of the law hounding their every move, every breath? Could this really work, like it seemed to for Anne? Kim snuggled closer, putting her forehead against the woman's long, slim neck. The intoxicating smell of the hero's hair and skin was seeping into her, bringing a relaxing lassitude to the frenetic thoughts within, calming and eliciting an embarrassment of clarity and affection. Shego sat, savouring the moment.

"You're... a lot like your parents," Shego murmured.

"Well, they are my parents."

She really was. The obsessive personality, the perfect idealism of James mixed in with the aggressive, dominating ambition of Anne. Both accomplished fighters, according to Anne. Shego remembered what she saw when she had viewed the villain newsfeed archive footage of The Analyst.

"No, I mean, sometimes, you're just so relaxed about things, like your Dad. But sometimes, you're so focused and intense, like,... uh..."

"My mom? Yeah. I've heard stories about her when she was in college and medical school. Insane hours, all-nighters. She was top of her class and everything. Really ambitious. You know she was only twenty-one when she graduated from neurosurgery? She used to complain that she had to go to all these conferences and not be able to rent a car." Shego chuckled, feeling the connection between herself and the girl grow and solidify inside her; Kim's hyper energy was beginning to mellow.

Outside some of the good natured trash talk filtered into the kitchen.

"Is that all you got Naco Boy?"

"I'll get you Fashion Girl!"

Kim shifted subtly. Shego felt the girl press herself against her briefly.

"Hey, you want to come out and play volleyball?"

"Sure. Just for a little, and then we need to get out of here and get to our date."

"Where are we going? You've been so secretive about it, and when my parents see that dress..."

"Just one of my old haunts," the woman brushed off with a wave. "As you always say, no big."

* * *

Shego sat on the loveseat that separated the living room from the front door landing. Anne and James watched her from the three cushion couch that abutted the front window. The super-powered villainess was glad to have the coffee table separating her from Anne. That woman just so completely unnerved her; better to keep away. She had used the downstairs bathroom to change into her outfit, a nice, pin-striped, tight fitting collared shirt over a deep green tube top, finished with deep green slacks and soft leather mid-thigh boots. Anne continued to stare at her. James, sensing his wife's tension, remained silent. Ron, Monique and.... Lily, sat at the dining table a few yards away, chattering merrily, something about whether the Crusher Lariat was more powerful a finisher than the Eukelele Bomb.

_Dammit..._

Why was she nervous? Perhaps maybe it was because it was their first fucking date, that might be it, yeah. All the other encounters weren't official, not in her book. This time, she had asked and Kim had accepted. It was out in the open with the hero's family and close friends. She felt like they'd done more than just agree to a date and that suspicion churned inside of her. She had long ago realized this was another instalment of getting-too-deep: meeting the parents and getting the approval of the best friends. And to think only seven days ago she wanted to call it off before they got too intimate. Well, that had gone out the window before the hurricane force of the girl's adorable and passionate ardour. Anne's eyes shifted to the stairs behind her, but Shego had long since sensed the hero's approach, hearing the light, sprightly step of the younger red-head. She swallowed, hoping the tension would simply disappear and turned her head.

Kim was wearing the dress her friend from Italy had specially couriered over, and it was perfect. The bangles on the short ankle boots glistened in the setting sun, the tight fitting top accentuating the girl's rounded face. The surprise was the leather choker that had her broach fastened in the centre. The skirt swirled and flared, the light material mimicking the playful swish of the girl's cheer uniform. The flashing bright green lights in the soles of the knee-high boots were barely visible during the daytime, but Shego knew the effect would be magic.

She slowly unfolded herself and stood, her gaze locked on the girl as those deep green eyes lifted and perforated any last vestiges of doubt Shego had in her mind.

"Ooh, that is taste!" Monique gushed, clasping her hands together and bouncing in a fit of girlish giddiness. Kim's eyes resolutely drank in the sight of her.

As if in a dream, Shego moved around the couch, and reach out her hand. Kim's hand, peach coloured against her pale complexion, rose and placed her fingers in her outstretched palm.

Her hand felt like it had been dipped into a molten cup of pure pleasure that shocked the woman. From a simple touch, a soul searching stare, Shego, international thief and criminal, was lost. She knew it. She knew it.

_Fuck. I knew it. Just.... fuck._

Shego didn't trust her voice to speak.

"Bye mom.... dad..." Kim breathed, her voice a libation of adoration that wafted over the woman like a cool breeze that shook her into utter awareness of the situation. Monique was tearing up, as was Anne. James wrapped an arm around the emotional neurosurgeon. Shego was nervous taking the dazed girl across the lawn, helping her into the cockpit. The way those deep green eyes tracked her was a strangely pleasurable experience. She worried about the girl tripping and falling flat on her face in the grass, that Anne would change her mind and zap her without so much as a sneeze. She breathed a sigh of relief as the cockpit bubble closed and she completed the quick preflight.

Through the entire flight to Go City, those deep green eyes tracked her every move. The girl's face was slightly flushed, a condition that periodically deepened. It was like watching a silent movie, but the difference was that she was the star, the centre of attention, the centre of the red-head's orbit. Those eyes devoured each and every detail, as if etching the memory of every ripple of fabric, eerily tightly stretched and defined muscle of her smooth skin. And equally disconcerting was the fact that, deep down, past all the layers of defences, all the excuses and recriminations, Shego enjoyed it. It seemed silly and inane, but the girl's fervent gaze made her feel special; that even if the entire universe burned or imploded, that for this little goody-goody, she was the only thing that mattered. It was a daunting and intimidating position to be in, being set on a pedestal like that.

_Well, this is it, though. Once we get to Go City, this little thing of ours may as well be a Gay Pride Banner._

As they entered Go City airspace, Shego decided that there needed to be conversation.

"We're almost there, Princess."

Kim started and her skin glowed with a deep and endearing flush that rose from each swathe of smooth, exposed skin. Shego almost smiled, feeling a weird giddy happiness, knowing that she was the cause of the girl's blush.

"Uh... sorry, I.... what...?" Kim squeaked out. Shego's sultry chuckle deepened Kim's glowing flush.

"I said, not that I mind the staring, because, I am all that, but we're almost there."

"There?"

_Kimmie must be really out of it. She might not even have noticed if I just circled her house for the last two hours._

The girl turned as looked out of the cockpit at the swiftly approaching lights of the sprawling metropolis. Shego herself always had mixed feelings when she saw this particular skyline, or the abomination of steel and glass that stood in the middle of the still pristine harbour. The red-head's flush deepened.

"Sorry! I didn't realize... I mean I didn't mean, oh gawd, I must look like such a..."

"I enjoyed every minute of it, Pumpkin," Shego grinned. "It's been a while since I've been ogled so intensely."

The laughter the girl elicited from her was a warm inviting sound that rang within the closed bubble of the cockpit. Shego had long before spotted the flaring lights and flashing laser strobes of their destination, glowing as brightly as any beacon in the sky. With expert hands, she wove the hoverpod's path gracefully between the towering skyscrapers, heading toward the deep thrumming beat nad driving bass that grew in intensity and ferocity as they approached. The hoverpod landing pad was clear, much to her relief. She wasn't sure how she would have reacted if one of her idiot brothers had chosen to bring their own paramour to the club the same night. The pod landed softly, lighting onto the sturdy metal construct. A ramp sloped down to a set of stairs that led down to a door set into the privacy wall erected around the raised platform. Shego popped the cockpit bubble with a frisson of excitement and helped Kim down the ramp. How long had it been since the last time she'd been here? Carmen had kept her promise to keep the pad clean, the green woman noted. Reaching the door at the bottom, Shego felt a sudden shiver from a long buried memory, a sudden feeling of deja vu that caused her to pause dramatically at the door. Beyond, she could hear some rock rap mix going on, the screaming squeal of a tortured electric against the pulsing staccato of rhythmic lyrics and a bass that throbbed with hidden violence. Shego reached out to open the door for Kim.

"Welcome to Marshall's," Shego smiled as she swung open the door, knowing a hip and popular girl would know the name. Kim's gasp was gratifyingly shocked.

They stepped into the dance floor, the wall of sound slamming deep vibrations into them. Shego noted all the exits, all the windows, catwalks, maintenance doors and staff entrances reflexively. Above the fractal displays of the dance floor, details filtered into her, skittering across her subconsciousness; bouncers, patrons, singers, instruments, tuners, roadies. The floorspace had changed again since the last time she had been in the club. That was something that Marshall's was known for; the late night, extreme makeovers that kept the club new and fresh. Up and coming interior decorators, even famous architects had been known to dip into the Marshall Mystique. Famous playwrights, novelists, politicos. Entourages were regulated to the first and second floors. Shego's eyes narrowed as she spied a calculating, plastic beauty near the sweeping ramp from the floor below. An eyebrow twitched slightly in frustration before she turned the wide-eyed Kim toward the rising stack of circular balconies that overlooked the stage, away from the newshound.

The noirette kept a calm but steady pace, taking slow smooth strides even as the short brown-haired woman craned her neck around, scanning the crowd. A man beside her argued with a bouncer who had intercepted them before they had set foot on the exclusive top floor. As they rose higher and higher, Shego heard a voice call out in their direction. She blinked, realizing that it had called out to her girl, and not her. Kim stopped, her hand leaving the comet-powered woman's long slim fingers.

Shego could not believe the flash of aggression that rose within her as Kim stopped to chat with a sparkley hip-hop queen. When Kim flushed slightly at something the rapper said, Shego slid up behind the girl and pulled the lithe body tightly against her own. The slight pink in Kim's cheeks grew into a full-blown blush, but the brown girl's dark eyes were now wide in disbelief; her hands rising to smother a squeal.

"She's here with me," Shego breathed into the red-head's ear, but she pitched her voice with a slight percussive plasma, carrying her words to the suddenly effusive woman.

"Shego! You back girl?" The woman bounced with excitement. "You gonna do a number, like old times? C'mon, give us a little somethin' somethin'!" Shego nearly rolled her eyes at the woman's excited jabbering.

_Great, a fan._

She smiled mysteriously, shaking her head in denial and continued their climb up the stairs until she reached the top. She took in the bouncer at the entrance.

"Tom," she said, shaking the bruiser's hands.

"Miss Shego," he said as he tucked away the hundred dollar bill she had passed to him. "Wanted to thank you for..." She flashed her eyes at the red-head behind her in warning.

"Later, Tom. Good to see you here. Say 'hi' to Alice, hunh?"

"Sure thing, Miss Shego," the hulking man said as he pulled back the rope and bowed. Kim followed her onto the balcony.

It was just the way she left it. It was a pleasant shock to see that the platform had been kept the way she liked it. The dark leather furniture, the rich nutmeg finished oak counter of the bar. Only the computer consoles next to the bar were new, the old cathode ray monitors replaced with large flat panels, the black towers by glowing, sleek silver cubes. The touch screen table still sat before the full couch that presided over the view of the stage. Even the large felt covered poker table shrouded in the shadows was ringed by the same mismatched chairs; one, a large silvered titanium throne, another a well polished armchair with velvet cushions, the last, a chic black and green leather highback.

"Hungry, Pumpkin?" she asked as he led the way to the couch. The red-head nodded wordlessly.

"Let's sit and I'll order us some stuff. It'll be finger foods though."

Without a glance at the sweating girl who was now on stage, Shego steeled herself and, sitting down, leaned over the table and pressed the call button. It only took a moment for the head chef of Mitchell's to answer.

"Ah! Miss Shego! Good of you to drop in, it's been too long!"

"Hey Rick. Yeah, it's been too long."

"An order of your usual?" She glanced at Kim who simply shrugged.

"Sure. Oh, and send up a mango raspberry spritzer, would you?"

"Anything for you, girl, you know that. Are you going to do a number? You know Carmen's going to spot you right away..." Shego snorted. Of course Carmen would know.

"Not tonight. I haven't done anything in years. Just send her up if you see her. I'll talk to her in the booth."

"Right. Food'll be up in a jif!" And with that the connection was terminated. Shego turned back to the girl, who was biting her lips, looking almost apoplectic from suppressed curiosity. Shego sighed mentally when Kim asked her first question. She thought the girl would ask how Shego could get the most exclusive private booth at a place considered by many as the place who knew you were hot or not spot. She gave Kim the shortened, saccharinized version. No story about rape and murder. No drama about holding another young girl as life drained from silver grey eyes, staining the harlequin uniform darker than black. How the saving of the dead girl's sister was the beginning of the end of Team Go. As it turned out, the girl's concern was only for her personal safety; the villainess was hard pressed to keep the warm feeling from spilling over into her visage. In an attempt to ward off the fluttery feelings in her stomach, Shego lectured the concerned red-head about safe-zones. The girl simply nodded at the answer, digesting the information as three stunning wait staff filed into the platform with trays laden with several platters of finger foods.

Having always been an eclectic diner, Shego's "usual" consisted of appetizers from Mexico, China, Korea, Italy and Japan. Princess clearly liked what she was eating, from the noises she was making.

A few minutes later, a slim, short haired blond woman in a flowing white linen tunic dress with gold trim and waist tie sauntered onto the platform.

"Shego! Why haven't you been returning my calls!" Shego stood and turned at the woman's greeting. She leaned into the perfunctory cheek kiss greeting and drew the blond toward the bar. She knew Kim's head was already shifting into high gear at all the things that she'd revealed tonight.

"Good to see ya, Carm," she said.

"What have you been up to, you old firedog? Are you in town for long? Who's the red-headed teenaged hottie you've got in tow there? It's been ages since you brought anyone up to the club!" Carmen's smile was the same as always, a little daring, a little challenging.

"This and that, you old roadrunner," Shego smiled in return. She paused for a moment. A surreptitious glance at her date told her that Kim was watching them with narrowed eyes. Shego followed the gaze to a nicely manicured hand resting on her forearm. She looked up at Carmen, who arched an eyebrow. "Do you have any of the Fourth here?" Carmen raised her other eyebrow in surprise.

"What's with the old code word?" the woman wondered aloud. Shego simply stared into the woman's eyes with an arched eyebrow. The blond sighed.

"What do you think? We're the hottest mix'n'match club in all of Go City. The entire A list is out in force tonight; you think I'm not going to have any reporters sniffing around?" Shego sighed in exasperation. "Why do you ask? I know you've never gotten over that thing with Hego and-"

"It's not that," Shego smothered a growl, her voice coming out strained. She hadn't wanted to tell anyone anything, but... "It's for her."

"Why...? Wait! Red-head, teen, girl... No! Is it really her?" Carmen threw back her head and laughed. "Ah! And you thought it would never happen."

"C'mon, you old bird, shut it okay? If the Fourth gets wind of this..."

Carmen sobered quickly.

"I hear you." Those dark brown eyes turned to the girl who sat idly twirling a lock of hair while she sipped at her drink. "If the press ever got a hold of a pic with you two... it'll be like poor Caitlyn all over again." Shego nearly sagged in relief.

"Yeah. I need you to keep the Fourth away from us tonight."

"I'll do what I can. But you know they're like roaches. Kill one and a whole hoard descends. Now. Introduce me to this young thing that's had you on a string the last year or so." Shego clamped firmly down on her sudden urge to throttle the woman; such behaviour, she was sure, would ruin the date.

She led the blond over to the couch. As she approached, Kim looked up.

"Kim? This is Carmen, the owner of the club, and an old friend."

"Carmen Marshall?" Shego ignored the deepening mischievous lines that appeared at the corners of the woman's eyes. "Nice to meet you."

"Carmen, this is Kim Possible," the woman continued, "my girlfriend." Shego knew she had just scored major points at the blush that lit Kim's cheeks.

"So thiiiis is Kim," Carmen teased. Shego shot the woman a glare, which was pointedly ignored. "It's so nice to finally meet you. Shego talks about you all the time whenever we get together."

_I am sooooo going to kill her..._

"Really? Then you have me at an advantage." Kim's eyes narrowed and bore into the comet-powered beauty. Her glowing green eyes stayed on the smirking blond.

_What the fuck is she doing...?_

"I suppose I'm not interesting enough then... Oh, hey Shego, are going to-"

"Carmen," Shego grated dangerously as the blond retreated with a laugh.

"Alright, alright, you old firedog." Kim snorted at the name.

"Carmen!" Shego raised a glowing fist.

"Nice meeting ya Kim! We'll talk more later," the woman called back, beating a giggling retreat. "We can swap stories!" Shego stood huffing for a moment, before turning toward the amused hero's stare. She sat back down and began to work the girl. Light. Meaningless. Good conversation. Keep it simple stupid! Shego kept an eye on the girl's intake of food and liquid. She'd ordered something with only a bit of light alcohol; no matter how much the girl drank, all she would get would be a little buzz, unless she chugged them down one after another in a short span of time. After an hour, the appetizer plates empty and Kim's cheeks slightly flushed, Shego wondered if she'd dodged the inevitable questions about Carmen. May be it was time to hit the dance floor.

"Shego," Kim said. Shego felt a shiver of concern, but simply arched an eyebrow.

"Yeah, Pumpkin?" What would she tell the teen? That Carmen was probably the only person she'd seen over the years, post-Team Go? That she had almost practically grown up with the blond, in many ways? That the woman had taught her many things about the female sex, or about sex? Kim's face flushed and lost a bit of its definition, before her eyes shifted away.

"Uh... why does everyone keep asking-"

"Me to do a number?" Shego groaned, but inside she sighed with relief. And the relief loosened her tongue inadvertently. She hadn't intended to talk about Caitlyn. She thought the story would never cross her lips ever again. But it did. She still remembered how the sun was high that bright July day, how the she had stormed out of the hovel they lived in, with Hego and Mego starting another silly argument that would inevitably come to blows. Mego had always secretly admired his brother, and had gotten into the habit of needlessly needling the older sibling. Shego, the girl in tow, had always been left out of almost everything. She thought back to how she'd wandered the streets, how she had been drawn by the scent of fresh earth to the park, her mind full of sunlight and her heart weighed down by purposelessness. How as she had neared the park, she'd heard the faint refrains that floated up to heaven from the madcap fingers of another ten year old girl. How she'd stood before a smaller brown haired girl who sat on a small dirty blanket, a vaguely familiar contraption of wood and metal resting in her hands. How she had wavered, entranced by the complex, woven sounds. How she had suddenly felt an urge to sing, and how she simply opened her mouth and joined the other, rougher voiced girl in song. Shego's eyes looked up at the night sky, but her mind was distant, mired in long suppressed memories of a bright July morning full of earth and angels. Kim's next few words brought her back to the present.

"So.... you were a singer?"

"Naw, Real life got in the way. I haven't sung since I was eighteen." She was sharing way too much personal information.

_Definitely time to hit the floor..._

She shook herself out of her brief funk, stood and took Kim's hand, pulling her into her arms. Kim squeaked as Shego held her intoxicatingly close.

"C'mon Princess, let's dance!" The girl's wide green eyes locked on her as she lead the way down the stairs, down past girls on the glam and the beefcakes guarding each platform. The sliding kaleidescope of colours, shifting in time with the cacophony of noise was already beating a deep tribal rhythm that the super-powered woman didn't even try to ignore. Kim stood, self-consciously gripping her opposite elbow with a nervous hand, glancing about sheepishly, fractal swirls on her peach coloured skin.

_I know how to get her going._

Shego began a slow turning shimmy, a mesmerizing, hypnotic sway, her arms rising and falling, wings of desire. As she completed her second turn, the villainess gazed, heavy lidded, through her long lashes. The girl's eyes were glued to her, an intense expression lighting her face. Shego smirked.

"C'mon, Princess, show me whatcha got!"

As the deep pulsing bass trance rhythm the girl smirked in return and closed her eyes. And she began to dance. The light frilly skirt swirled, lifting, floating as the girl swayed to the heavy sound. The lights in her heels sparkled, like Aphrodite emerging from the sea. It was everything the thief had imagined, perhaps more.

Shego could not believe her eyes. She knew that Kim was an award winning cheerleader, an Olympic level gymnast and an accredited martial arts master, a registered lethal weapon. Strength, grace and flexibility in a package that was increasingly attractive to her. But adding to it a seductive, sexual undertone, Shego could barely keep her mouth closed as the girl swirled around her, eyes closed, somehow avoiding the other clubbers around them, sliding in and out of the crowd, between and through the moving bodies. Details faded in the wake of the girl's abandon; the noirette tracked the reddish orange hair through a wake of bodies that parted for the teen as the girl wove her way around the thief.

_What was it about her? What is it? Why her?_

Shego didn't have answers to those questions, but she could not stop the rising tide of desire that seemed to fork its way down from the crown of her head to gather in tingling pools within her.

Time and space lost meaning as the redhead wove an indescribable magic around the cynical pragmatist, driving away the fears and worries in the woman, leaving no room for anything but a brilliantly focused synchronization that arced between them, searing flashes of intimacy. It was a communication at an instinctively primal level. Although her deep green eyes were closed, Kim seemed to feel the comet-powered beauty's gaze upon her, twisting and moving in supple, smooth motions that gravitated closer and closer to the woman, each disappearing inch of distance undulating higher and higher tides of intimacy. Soon, only inches away, the villainess could feel the heat radiating from the swaying hero, tantalizing glances of incandescent warmth that shot straight into her soul.

Shego was only vaguely aware of the circle of the onlookers had formed around them as Kim finally closed the last inch, the girl pressing close, riding her thigh, leaning back, hands resting lightly on her shoulders. The thief's mouth was dry with desire; monolithic spires of hope and excitement coruscated along the form and shape of her as the girl's fingers caressed the nape of her neck, the back of her arms.

It was when Kim's lips, ghosting past hers for long excruciating moments, finally connected firmly that Shego suddenly decided to skip the room she had reserved at the Rockwaller Hotel.

It was also how she missed the sudden, momentary flash.

"Kim," her breath panting across the hero's parted lips. "Let's get out of here!" Kim simply nodded, her eyes unfocused, her pupils dilated. She seized the girl's hand, threading them through the confining and claustrophobic crowd toward the hoverpod platform. Suddenly, several figures blocked their path and Shego growled in sensual frustration.

"He-hey ladies," said a dirty bottle blond. With him stood a couple of brunettes, slim and top heavy, wearing tight shirts and jeans.

"Nicky... nick?" The hero recognized the one that had spoken and had for a split second drawn back from the men.

"That was some show you put on there. Why don't we go and hang out at my crib?"

No way was she going to allow some skinny-assed little boys spoil their fun. She simply pushed past them, pulling the reluctant girl along. Then with an evil smirk, the comet-powered beauty whipped Kim into her arms and planted a passionate kiss on the redhead. The deep green eyes glazed over as she slowly released the girl's sparkle-glossed lips.

"Sorry fellas, but ladies only at this par-tay." The hero giggled as they pushed open the landing pad doors and raced up the stairs. In moments, they rose up into the twinkling stars, surfing the tides of passion.

* * *

Shego was riding a high she'd never felt before. It was like the exhilaration of falling out of a plane without a parachute, playing chicken with a train. She had done both; it was a squirming terror nailed with fear to a frame of obscene fascination. But in both cases, she had a safety net: the Go Jet in the first case, and Hego in the second. What she was doing with Kim felt like that. It was a headlong plummet into danger, into the unknown, but right at that moment, Shego didn't care. She might regret it in the morning, but in the space of this magical moment, it felt right. Besides, there was a big difference in what was happening between those previous experiences and the one she was ensorcelled by.

Choice.

This was an encounter of her own devising. In the stark, uncompromising morning light, perhaps it might become a different story, but tonight was hers for the taking, if she just chose for it to happen. The look on the girl's face was obvious in the club.

The starlit thief turned to look at the hero. The girl's face was turned away, but the body language was all wrong for an encounter the woman was looking for. Shego frowned as the hoverpod slid silently above the familiar treetops of the Go Harbour basin. Kim's shoulders were hunched and the girl herself was unexpectedly quiet.

"What's wrong, Pumpkin?"

The girl gave a slight jerk and blushed. She shook her head for a moment as if to dislodge a memory.

"I... it's nothing. I'm sorry, I don't know what's gotten into me."

Shego looked at the girl's downcast, deep green eyes, considering. She'd made several wrong guesses tonight, but there was one thing that she could gauge with an adroit adeptness. That was mood, and Kim still had it, even with the inexplicable doldrums that seemed to plague the girl now. The adorable jawline of the hero in the moonlight was truly something to behold.

Shego remained silent, her mind beginning to ask a number of disturbing questions.

Was this smart? She'd never brought anyone here. This hideaway in the mountains near Go City was a private, secret place that only Team Go knew about. Shego had never brought anyone to this place, and in a fit of passion had made a snap decision to bring Kim here. Even as she threaded the hoverpod past the sheltering rockface and through a spelunker's nightmare, it felt... appropriate somehow. The emotion and inexplicable rightness of it all spooked her. As the hoverpod floated past the first raft of sensors, lights began to flicker into existence, spreading a soft luminescent glow across the glistening walls. The entrance into the cavern, as always, was breathtaking. An feeling of peace and relief washed over the comet-powered woman. She was returning home.

The girl's eyes widened in wonder, her cheeks pinking slightly with pleasure and excitement. The girl's astonished gasp made the villainess smile to herself, as suffusion glow warming her, telling her that she had chosen rightly. Across the lake that dominated much of the cavern floor they floated serenely, the thief slowing their progress so the hero could take in the spectacular vista. The ceiling was starred with feather and frost anthodites, a gigantic spawn of radial clusters, mineral anemones that glistened and sparkled in the soft lit cavern. Shego chuckled at the sight of the girl dashing back and forth, each new discovery eliciting an exclamation of surprised joy.

The tunnel opened into an enormous cavern. A stream flowed in from a narrow crevice. A large pool of water dominated the wide floor, the water lapping lazily against the far side. Shego slowed the hoverpod and followed the wavefront of the lake. Kim stood and pressed her face against the hoverpod's cockpit bubble, her breath frosting on the clear pane. The entire cavern floor was covered with massive natural crystal formations, worn smooth into strange rounded steps. Everywhere she looked, with the moonlight streaming down from a hole in the ceiling, the cavern sparkled. Kim could see a small cabin set against the cavern wall next to the shoreline, a landing pad a short distance down from the building. The hoverpod slid quietly onto the flat clearing, glowing stones flickering to life. A softly lit path wound its way to the cabin.

"You like?" the woman murmured behind her.

"Wow," Kim said breathlessly. "Just... wow!"

Shego smiled at the girl's reaction, a thrill of pride running tendrils down to her fingertips. The smile did not leave her as the pod touched down. As the skids eased and the hydraulics hissed, Shego unbuckled herself and started her post-flight checklist. Behind her she could hear the Kim hopping from one foot to the other. A claw flick, a flipped switch, and the cockpit bubble retracted.

"Go ahead and look around, Pumpkin. I'll finish up here and we'll go in for some hot cocoa-moo."

"You sure?" Kim demurred.

"Know how to do the flight check?"

"No."

"Off you go. Have fun, it'll only be a couple of minutes." Kim smiled back at the villainous before flipping down from the hoverpod. She landed on the smooth surface of the hoverpad and gazed around. Shergo smirked at her little showoff.

"And careful with the wet rocks, Kimmie!" Shego called down to her. "The quartz is slippery when wet!"

"'Kay!" Kim wanted to wait for the woman and not go into what looked like a metal cabin set right into the cavern wall. She spied a wharf a ways down the water. "I'm gonna check out the water!"

"The dock? Yeah, okay!"

What Shego hadn't told the girl was that the shutdown checks only took a few seconds to complete. Her glowing green eyes followed the girl as she made her way along the shore of the cavern's lake. Just what was it about this girl that Shego was willing to share this personal space with her? Why had she brought the girl here? The woman felt as if her head and her heart were out of sync. Her instincts were telling her this was a bad, bad idea, but her heart felt as if it were floating, a sensation that was at once unfamiliar yet comfortable, and that worried the comet-powered villainess.

Shego eventually climbed out of the pod and secured the cockpit bubble. She stood beneath the fuselage and used a large tee wrench key to open the external storage hatch, where she pulled out an old black leather duffel bag. She put the bag on the landing pad surface as she closed and locked the compartment. She turned to see Pumpkin sitting at the end of the dock. In the shadow of the hoverpod, Shego watched the girl, kicking her feet above the smooth mirror-like surface of the lake. Even at this distance, the sheer moonlit beauty of the girl was mesmerizing. It was amazing. It was entrancing.

It was scaring the fuck out of her.

Shego wasn't sure how long she had stood like a pole-axed moron, staring, but she came to herself with a start, wondering what was wrong with her for the umpteenth time. She shook herself furiously, then picked up the bag and headed out to the dock. She took extra care not to be too quiet as she approached the girl, knowing that the hero had the uncanny ability to sense when she was near.

"Hey Kimmie, ready to go inside for some cocoa-moo?" Kim stood and turned with an alluring pose.

"Sure. Just one thing?"

"What?"

"What's cocoa-moo?" Shego smirked. Whilst not "coffee", chocolate was just as good.

"Hot chocolate, Princess. Hot... chocolate." The girl's eyes glaze, blushing furiously at the woman's suggestive tone. Her steps meandered a bit and Shego reached out a hand to steady the preoccupied hero.

"How do you do that?" The red-head's voice was thick with eager excitement. Shego marvelled that the girl could still walk straight as they headed back across the dock.

"What?"

"Make hot chocolate sound like... lovemaking." The girl's deepening blush was so adorable that the villainess couldn't help but put an arm around the petite teen's shoulders and pull her close as they continued across the shoreline. Shego shrugged in reply

"Well, if you'd rather I just said hot, passionate, funky, nasty, dirty,-" she began with a grin.

"Shego!" Kim giggled, goosing the woman in the side.

"I'll get you for that, Possible," Shego growled with a mock glare.

"So, what is this place? It's so close to Go City. Isn't it dangerous for you?"

The pale green woman smiled as she recounted the tale of finding the cavern. It had hurt like hell when she had fallen and dislocated her elbow. She remembered the confusion of arms, limbs and feathers as she wrestled with Bird Brain in midair, the final plasma shock she applied to his brain, then the heart stopping drop as she realized what she had done. Crashing through the trees. Suddenly falling into a darkness, the sudden explosion of pain as she hit the appallingly cold water. Thank God for plasma. But the devil too for healing power; she had to work quickly to straighten her dislocated elbow before the healing factor kicked in, fusing the bones incorrectly.

They made their way up to the cabin, Shego thinking about who else had been to her pad. No one, other than Mego and his once paramour. Certainly, she'd never thought to bring anyone else up here. Kim was the first. The red-head suddenly blushed and giggled.

Shego glanced at her as they stopped in front of the cabin door.

"What?" Shego asked as she released the red-head. The girl just shook her head, then rising on tiptoes, placed a quick kiss on the woman's lips.

"I love you."

Shego world skewed and she felt her face grow hot. Who would have guessed? Miss international, cold-hearted bitch, blushing a bright green for a slip of a girl. The thought made her head spin.

She felt like she was in a haze, each moment here then gone. The girl was an intoxicating presence that made her forget... things. Shego felt like she was on heavy medication; it had happened once, during a botched Team Go caper. They had needed to reset her bones, but she contracted some sort of virus. They had her on some chemical cocktail made up of morphine, methylphenidate and fluoxitine to keep her happy, to keep her sane. To keep her from incinerating the entire intensive care ward.

Unlike the chemical cocktail which made her feel bipolar, swinging wildly from suicidal depression to the heights of artificially induced happiness, Kim was a bright, flighty-floaty, bubbly-pink feeling that the comet-powered woman could not control, could not get enough of. And Shego felt like she was putting the noose around her own neck. It was like signing a suicide pact of her own uncontrolled volition.

Before she knew it, they were inside her pad. How had they gotten inside? Had she really been that distracted by the slim girl? She had even taken off her boots, and Kim was wandering off, her own feet in house slippers that the woman had bought on a whim. They fit the girl's feet perfectly, a standard, D width, American sized six and a half. She'd had enough bruise imprints to know. She watched as the girl paused by a painting that hung above a wall table topped with a sprawling, elaborate marble sculpture of a series of miniature oriental islands and bridges.

She tore her eyes from the girl, shouldered the duffel and descended the four steps to the bed. At the press of a button, a raft of drawers opened from the smooth sides under the mattress. Into the drawers went a few days of clothing, socks and underwear. Shego paused as she put some of her unmentionables, (her mother's words, she smiled at its memory) in the drawers, where she paused, seeing some lace. She smirked, pulling out black satin panties with a dark green lace trim.

"I'm gonna use the little girl's room," she heard Kim call out.

"Go ahead, Princess," Shego replied. "Just press the number one button to flush!"

She smirked to herself with the cryptic answer she'd given to the red-head, moving to the kitchen area behind the arc of shelves opposite of the bathroom. Shego was still feeling pleasantly buzzed, and not just from the cocktails she'd had at Mitchell's. From the bottom of the duffel she pulled out a black, wide, squat, watertight cooler which went on the counter that separated the fully equipped kitchen from the dining table. From the cooler, she pulled out some meat, some vegetables and some carefully wrapped eggs. Each went into it's own drawer in the green tinted aluminum side by side fridge. From the inside she pulled out a crystal decanter of a clear red liquid with cubed and skinned blood oranges, mangoes, raspberries and strawberries. She half filled a clear bowl shaped glass from another cabinet, gently grasping the stem by her fingers.

Normally she would savour the sangria, but the villainess wanted to force the twinges of doubt in her head by slightly elevating the buzz she was already feeling from the cocktails in the club. She threw back the half glass of wine punch, and immediately washed out the glass as she chewed and swallowed the fruit, the light sweetness of the punch a cool, pleasant tingle within her. As she waited for the effects to heighten her present state, she could hear the bathroom door open and Kim washing her hands.

_Such a good girl... such a goody-goody. What the fuck is up with me? Why the hell does she even want to be with me? And why do I keep letting her get to me? When this gets out I am so fucking dead. It's going to be such a headache, on the run again, hiding out from not just the villains, but the law as well._

It would be open season on her for every black hat from every quarter imaginable.

But as she saw Kim walk into view, the voice in her head was silenced. The girl's skin shone in the pale moonlight, her red hair a living molten halo. The hero stepped out onto the balcony and leaned over the rail. The girl's pristine beauty, so young, so unlike herself, left her breathless with anticipation.

Shego smiled a sad lonely smile.

_Just one night... it'll be okay... I hope._

Silently, a panther stalking her prey, Shego slipped over to the bed, quickly doffing her clothing down to her tube top. The rest of her clothing went into a hamper built into the headboard. Kim was oblivious to the woman's actions, watching the planes in their holding patterns above the distant city lights. Even at this distance, the rooftop spotlights of Mitchell's was distinct against the midnight blue of the sky. The dark lacy panties went on, and thief arranged herself on the bed.

_Let's get it on._

"Kimmie." She pitched her voice perfectly. She could see the girl's entire body shiver from the sultry sound of it and the low pitched resonance she applied with her plasma. Shego depressed a button on the headboard and the bed rose a mere millimetre on maglevs, a soft hiss of air pushing the bed forward toward the hero, who had turned and gave an incredulous, joyous laugh, causing the woman to abandon her seductive smirk into an answering smile.

Shego's heart was beating a rapid staccato rhythm against her chest. She could feel the stretched fabric of the tube top, her skin tingling with excitement. The bed stopped an inch away from the girl; not having worn a bra, Kim could see her girlfriend's arousal. The thief slid over, her hands on the hero's belt.

"Let me help you with that."

Her fingers nimble, her hands sure, the garments dropped away from the moon kissed peach flesh. As each new swath of skin was revealed, Shego let her claws glide over the flushed and pebbled expanses, her full dark lips tracing the hero's smooth contours. She felt as if she had all the time in the world in just this single night. That this night would reveal some unspeakable miracle of wonder and that things would never be the same, just for this one single, unfathomable moment of twilight. Let her heart swell in the eventide and the ebb of morning care for itself. Shego impulsively pressed the length of herself against the girl's back, now only clad in a black thin strapped silk slip and heard Kim's answering whimper of arousal.

As the girl leaned into her, she slid backward, pulling the girl down until she lay supine along the bed, her head in Shego's lap, the tendrils of hair tickling the comet enhanced woman's thighs. Unable to control herself at the sight of the hero splayed before her, Shego leaned over, seeking a contact that even she herself didn't really understand, dark lips on peach, the hero giggling slightly as the dark hair played against her collarbones and upper chest. The woman shuffled backward, drawing the hero fully onto the bed. Shego considered if she needed to wrestle with the morose moodiness that had seized the red-head earlier. With a shock she realized that she really did want to know what had bothered the girl, and an even bigger shock, that she wanted to see if she could do something about it. She considered her options as she ran her fingers through he girl's fiery mane.

"Did you have a good time, Princess?" was what she decided to open the conversation with.

"Oh yeah," Kim sighed, the girl's deep, dusk darkened eyes glistening in the moonlight.

"You were a bit quiet on the on the way back, so I wondered," Shego said. The girl's body stiffened and sat up abruptly. "So. Something did bother you," she attempted to temporize.

"Yeah."

Shego immediately began her long practised reviewing method, paring out moment by moment of the night, searching for anything extraordinary, her eyes trained on the girl's taut and stressed body. Each moment had been unconsciously examined, filed, and catalogued for future consideration. Kim was curious about Carmen, possibly jealous. The girl was aware of her mother's odd behaviour... but trusted the woman regardless. And at the club...

"Those boys...?" Shego asked gently. Kim had been entranced before those little boys interfered... the girl had drawn back, had recognized one of them even if he hadn't recognized her. "When that blond talked to you, you pulled back a bit."

"Yeah... they... I kinda..." Kim looked away, a flush creeping up her face. Shego waited, her eyes level. "I've never really had much luck with the boys." The woman nearly blinked at the red-head's sheepish admission.

"What? No way! You're the most popular kid in school!" Kim raise an eyebrow. "Uh, I mean, from... er... from when I was stalking you, I could tell." Shego's own mirroring flush burned on her cheeks. Kim's smile was so uncharacteristic of the usually ebullient girl. It was a crooked twist that Shego was very familiar with, having seen it in the mirror too often.

"Yeah, popular like the a mascot dog for a commercial. But romantically?" Kim shook her head and raised a hand. "Locked braces on my first kiss." Up went one finger. "Dated a Synthodrone." Another finger. "Rebounded on her best friend." A third finger. Kim let her hand fall onto her lap. "Romance, I struck out every time. And besides, who wants to hang out with a girl who has to ditch people last minute all the time to go save the world?" That last bit... there was a deep current of bitterness that went beyond the failed vicissitudes of the high school dating life. Shego considered whether or not she should back down and leave well enough alone, but then, if the girl was true to the fervent declarations of love, she wanted to test that.

_In for a penny, blah blah blah..._

"Kim.... this isn't just about boys,... is it..." she said and left the ball with Kim.

"Well,... it's kinda... stupid," Kim looked down, her hands twisting in her lap. "When I was sixteen, I had this huge crush on a boy. He was smart, and creative, and cool. Every time I'd run into him, my brain would just turn to mush."

"Wait! Two years ago... it wasn't that skinny assed hottie that I saw during Halloween, was it?"

"Uh... yeah. Josh Mankey. Anyway, we'd been sort of feeling each other out and I was finally talking like a human being around him, when he asked to look at my mission scrapbook, asked me to bring it over to his place. My heart was pounding like crazy. I wanted to share my missions with him, to talk about it with him, so that he could understand something that was important to me. When I got to his place, he said his parents were out." Kim paused. As the silence dragged on, Shego sat up wondering what the girl was going to say, afraid what it might be.

"My heart was beating so hard and I could barely stop the trembling in my breath. I thought maybe we'd make out a bit or something," Kim eventually said. "We sat on the couch, and I pulled out my scrapbook. But he just pushed me down; he felt so heavy. His breath smelled sweet and cheap, like from a breath mint. He didn't even care to look, but I really wanted him to.... I don't know, understand me, I wanted to share it..." Kim took a shuddering breath; Shego had a sudden urge to wrap her arms around the tortured hero. She suddenly realized that perhaps this was not a good idea. That her immaculate image of Kim was morphing into something that she wasn't sure she was capable of dealing with. That even as she reached out her hand, she could feel the clamour of warning bells drawing her back. She paused, then lowered her arm.

"And then I got so... scared! Me, Kim Possible, world saver, master of sixteen martial arts... And I was freaking out over a boy pushing me down. I kicked him off, grabbed my stuff and just ran for it. When I got home, I pretended nothing had happened, but... My mind just wouldn't stop thinking about how... Was that all I was good for? Was that all he wanted from me, thought I'd wanted? Did he think I was that easy? I was so ashamed and embarrassed..." Kim's head sank lower and lower, clearly reliving emotional echoes. "The next day, he just pretended as if we never had anything. Like we never went out at all." She drew a shuddering breath. "At least he didn't tell anyone, or say I was a terrible lay, or something..." Kim was oblivious as she let loose a hiccoughing laugh, her hands balled into tight fists.

"I mean, it was all my fault. I probably shouldn't have... but was it so wrong to just want someone... to love you for who you are...? The worst part... was that I... I thought about just letting him, y'know... that maybe it didn't matter if he didn't really... that I'd just feel... less... lonely... but in the end... I just couldn't... I just..."

Shego was flummoxed. She never had any idea that this had happened, that it had happened to Kim, that it could have happened to the teen hero. That even this girl, so pure of heart and free of mind had been brushed by the small tiny evils that men make themselves and had been deeply wounded by it. And suddenly, Shego understood. Pieces of memory fell into place, filling her with a painful comprehension of the hero's tortured betrayal of another seminal night.

"_You know what I really hate?"_

_"That your date melted?"_

_"Nah. You."  
_  
Kim had transfered the pain of Eric, Synthodrone Number Nine-Oh-One, to her, and that had ended badly for Shego. The girl's trauma had not resulted in a demoralizing defeat as Drakken had hypothesized, but had refocused her will into a kick that sent the thief into the overloading microwave tower. If it hadn't been for the woman's intrinsic plasma qualities, she would have died from the resultant third degree burns. But her deep training had allowed her body to unconsciously match the harmonics of the microwave tower's frequency to negate the effects, although it had not been fast enough to prevent her hair from getting singed. Still, she felt it was only prudent to play possum at the time and willingly get on the police van, if only to get some distance from the overwrought girl.

And yet, Kim had overcome that night and was here now, with her, just the two of them, sitting quietly together, side by side, the girl baring her heart and soul to her nemesis. The lightning flash of realization only took several long moments as Shego listened to the sound of their breathing. A sudden cathartic feeling of aptness overwhelmed her.

And Shego understood.

"You... wanted someone who understood... who would accept you for who you were..."

Kim nodded silently. Her head was turned away, but the shape of her hunched form, it was obvious that the girl was holding back a rush of emotions.

"Kim," Shego said, slowly. Kim's eyes slid away.

Shego looked at the hero, tension visible in the girl's flexed muscles. And she knew the words, words she herself had longed to hear in her own heartbroken past, when she was young and felt her world had come crashing down upon her.

"It's okay. Just do what you want; what you need to do, to be who you are. Because, well..." Shego paused and continued. "Because, after all these years, I know you. I know what it's like. I understand you. And I'm here, with you." Kim began to shiver, then shake. Shego looked on, not touching the hero, but neither drawing away, suddenly unsure if she had said something wrong.

"K-kim?" Shego asked. With a quick jerky motion, the lithe red-haired girl cannon balled into the dark-haired woman.

"I-it j-j-j-just made m-m-me f-feel so wo-wo-worthless..." the girl sobbed. "And t-that's why, I th-th-thought maybe, if I d-d-did enough..." Shego lifted her arms hesitantly, then wrapped them tightly around the crying girl. She stroked the long red-hair. "A-a-a-and I just hated myself for that..."

The girl continued to cry upon her, arms wrapped tight around her neck. The woman's own eyes were wet. She never thought her own pains and trouble would be of any use to someone else, especially someone who had gained some importance to her. She continued to run her claws through the red hair, using her touch to sooth and heal.

Shego was unsure when the simple soothing touches between the two of them changed in tone, and yet, it did. And when it did, the ferocity was an entirely new radiance, a clearly different timbre. Her claws, her lips, her body was transforming the girl's outbreak of scarred emotion into a swelling tide of passion. Perhaps it was because of their history; the pain of each strike, the pleasure of fighting had always been an integral part of their relationship. It was as if the warrior pride was giving way to a gentler affection. And that made all the difference.

Kim was letting her take the lead. It was not that she was allowing Shego to dominate her, but much like the leader and follower dynamic, she allowed the woman to lead and she followed willingly, unquestioningly spurring the noirette to even greater planes of passion. It was a symbiosis that Shego had never considered possible in any relationship. All her past... encounters... had been the power-based hierarchical pyramid of the dictatorial alpha and the subjugated pack. Mutual dependency and equilibrium was a foreign and exhilarating concept. She'd never experienced it before, let alone in the act of... what?

This wasn't sex. This wasn't the wham-bam, one nighter, no strings attached, ships in the night, non-stop flight that she had infrequently indulged in. This was a familiar act with a scintillatingly new dimension.

Clothing simply disappeared, revealing a history written in scars. Scars fuelled by ire based on the concept of power and dominance. Shego touched each one, remembering with her trained mind how they had been dealt. And with her touch, the history was transmuted into something brighter, clearer, a symbol of skill and respect. The girl writhed under her libation, receiving and accepting each new interpretation and responding with growing ardour.

It was strange and wonderful and new in so many respects that Shego was unsure what she was feeling as she gazed upon the ardent visage of the teen, who's flushed face was the most beautiful sight she'd ever laid her eyes on, and she had seen quite a bit in her twenty-five years. As she bent the girl almost double, the hero's legs inclined over her, as she drew the girl's own fingers into the swirling maelstrom of their conjoined affections, her eyes never left the the exquisitely rapturous face of Kim Possible.

"Wait..., no.... no..." the red-head whimpered. Yet without more words, Kim followed her lead as if Shego's desires were communicated through the light rasp of her claws, the ardent code of her fingertips. Fingers, so charmingly slim, replaced the woman's claws, delving deep into the growing pleasure that fell onto the girl's own visage, her passion painting a hungry burning tale. The villainess wouldn't have turned away from watching the impassioned girl for all the money in the world.

"Sexy..." she heard her own sultry voice say, "You're so sexy... too sexy..."

And then, Shego tried something she had never attempted before. She had near perfect control of her plasma powers. Plasma was a very useful though dangerous, difficult and often contrary energy waveform. But long ago, Shego had realized that she could, with enough concentration generate a plasma field anywhere on her body.

She opened her mouth, her long pointed tongue sliding out, seeking the girl's moving fingers, a soft green glow emanating from the wriggling tip. As her oral caress made contact, Kim's body shook and convulsed, the girl gulping an enormous gasp. She twisted and turned under that onslaught, wailing her delight to the night sky, her hips bucking and heaving above her flushed and contorted face, an eruption of passion running in rivulets down her body. Suddenly, the girl's body arched, the muscles shivering with delighted tension, the slim calves bent, the toes curling tight. Kim instinctively drew in a long, hissing breath. With a smirk on Shego's lips, the green light flared.

Kim's shriek was the most beautiful sound Shego had ever heard.

And just as surprising and sudden, Shego felt her own intensity reach critical mass. Her own heart had been pounding down the winding way of arousal herself. And even though none of her own erogenous zones had been touched, a sizzling sense of accomplishment shivered through the comet-powered woman. It was as if Kim's climax had become her own, muscles fluttering and heaving, the plasma pulsating in time with every climactic crest. With each spasm, Kim's mewling voice reached greater heights; with each cry, Shego's own answering frenzy erupted anew. Her guttural groans spurred the girl on further and further until the super-powered woman no longer had the strength or awareness to keep the girl in her precarious position and they collapsed in a breathless tangle.

Kim lay gasping in a post orgasmic fugue. Shego, who had partially fallen on the girl was the first to recover, slowly propping herself on her elbow to gaze at the girl's moonlit complexion. The skin was a luminous pearlescense that she found spellbinding. Her hands trembled slightly as she began running her claws over the beautiful skin, scars and all.

_Perfect. She's still my perfect Princess_, she thought with a sad smile. Then the girl stirred and Shego tucked away that tender moment.

Kim turned to her, and regarded her with a serious expression, a searching gaze that let loose a hurricane of emotions through the woman's heart.

"Shego..."

"Yes?"

"Can.... can I kiss you?" The dark haired woman nearly barked in laughter, stifling her humour into a snort.

_A little late for that ain't it, Pumpkin?_

"What? Why do you need to ask that?"

"Because.... I dunno, I wanted to say it... to let you know, being here with you, is special to me, something precious..."

It was the last straw. The stone cold bitch was _touched_. Her heart _melted_. She felt a rush of fervent _happiness_ charge its way up her spine to spew red hot sparks out the top of her head.

She was pretty sure that she had never blushed as she was now; her cheeks burned wildly.

"Yeah, okay," Shego mumbled.

Kim looked up and placed a hand against her cheek, held it there. Deep green eyes stared into her own glowing orbs. An odd look was on the girl's face, at once sad and content, a look that thoroughly confused the thief. The girl continued to stare into her eyes, before drawing her down to the waiting, engorged sparkle coloured flesh. The moment before their lips met, Kim's breath whispered across hers, a tantalizing torment. Soft, yet distinct, the girl's fascinatingly delectable words hit Shego where it really hurt.

"I'm home."

And as their lips crashed together, the comet-powered villainess had only one thought before all thought was stripped away.

_I am sooooooo dead._

* * *


	23. The Kill Lyrics

**The Kill**_  
by 30 Seconds from Mars_

What if I wanted to break  
Laugh it all off in your face  
What would you do?

(Oh,Oh,Oh,Oh)

What if I fell to the floor  
Couldn't take this anymore  
What would you do, do, do?

Come, break me down  
Bury me, Bury me  
I am finished with you

What if I wanted to fight  
Beg for the rest of my life.  
What would you do?

(Do,do)

You say you wanted more  
What are you waiting for  
I'm not running from you

(from you)

Come, break me down  
Bury me, Bury me  
I am finished with you  
Look in my eyes  
You're killing me, killing me  
All I wanted was you

I tried to be someone else  
But nothing seemed to change  
I know now: this is who I really am inside  
I Finally found myself  
Fighting for a chance  
I know now

This is who I really am

Oh oh  
Oh oh  
Oh oh

Come, break me down  
Bury me, Bury me  
I am finished with you, you, you  
Look in my eyes  
You're killing me, killing me  
All I wanted was you  
Come, break me down  
Break me down  
Break me down

What if I wanted to break...?

(You say you wanted more, what are you waiting for? (bury me) I'm not running from you...)  
What if I, what if I, what if I...

(Bury me, bury me)


	24. Chapter Twelve: The Kill

Disclaimer:  
Kim Possible © Disney  
The Kill © 30 Seconds to Mars

A/N: Read this while listening to the song on YouTube! Just paste this at the end of youtube dot com : /watch?v=dPIKNbvMuFg

- KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP -

**The Kill**_  
by sweetPixiesmile_

- KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP -

She slowly surfaced from a comfortable place. It was so warm and soft and safe, she didn't want to leave behind such a sanctuary. But as her long worn skills slowly took her from her sleep, she woke to the soothing sound of another person's deep breathing. She was lying haphazaardly atop silken skin. Her head rested on a lusciously delightful softness. Her arms had encircled slim hips. Arms rested across her back in a subtly tantalizing embrace.

Shego could not remember when her body had felt so languidly calm. It was a weird and painful feeling that slowly seeped up from her subconscious and spread it's sticky ichor along the corners of her mind. She could feel her heartbeat rise slightly as she instinctively crushed the smile that threatened to break against the warmth.

Slowly, she opened her heavy lidded eyelids, smoky against the shining glow of her irises. She gazed, without moving, at the red hair that shone in the grey morning, sharply contrasted against the black satin sheets of her bed. But as much as she wanted to stay in this microcosm of affection, her body insisted on getting up and starting her morning routine.

She expertly slid herself from the girl, hardly disturbing the slumbering teen's arms. She gazed upon those captivating features, the cute line of the jaw, the eyes slightly puffy from crying, the partially opened lips that beckoned to her a mesmerizing siren call.

There was nothing she'd rather do than languish along Kim's side, but good habits should never be ignored. Waking early and making sure one's body was limber enough for the day was at the top of Shego's daily schedule. She briefly considered taking a break, but she knew that even such a small concession would annoy her all day. So she pressed a button on the back of the headboard. A small drawer slid open with a click and whirr. She pulled out a forest green sports bra and top, black hip-hugger yoga pants and a black towel. She silently dressed, her eyes on the slumbering red-head. The girl's hair pooled in a vibrant halo on the black satin sheets. In some indeterminate part of her, there was a small hard core of contentment that had settled within her. She smiled briefly before heading out onto the large balcony for some yoga and Tai Chi. Finally, she sat in the lotus position for some meditation, her legs folded, her feet propped up on the opposite leg's hip joint.

These helped her refocus herself, centre her spirit. It helped clear her mind for the day and was a satisfying way to keep her flexible in mind and body. But there was something deep within her, today, that she couldn't seem to push aside and compartmentalize as her breathing deepened. She hadn't had this opportunity for the last several weeks, with Drakken sending her out to check the security of every one of their lairs.

The sun was just rising when she returned. She went to the kitchen and pulled out a plastic ziplock bag from the bottom drawer refrigerator freezer. She removed a coffee bag from the ziplock and poured a measure of beans onto a large marble chopping board. She pulled a second board and placed it on top, then pushed hard against the sandwiched beans. She lifted the board, inspectd the cracked and shattered remains and, pulling out a brush, swept the pulverized grains into a stainless steel French slow perculator. She nestled the perculator above a dark green mug and set the mug under her instant-boil filtration system. She set the timer for twenty-minutes. She showered quickly, now wanting nothing more than a good cup of joe. Maybe watch the news as she cuddled up against a particular red-head. She smiled to herself as she towelled dry her hair and began drying it with her low-level plasma.

A half-hour later, she walked over to her coffee, smiling again as she passed the sleeping girl. She put the percolator in the sink and lifted the steaming mug by the saucer. She sauntered over to the flatpanel television and flared her finger on the red infrared band, deftly hitting the exact frequency to turn on the set. She then adjusted the frequency and the set changed channels to her preferred news network. She raised her mug for a sip, her eyes on the news when she froze.

"Oh, _shit_!"

- KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP -

The morning was broken with the sound of shattering crockery.

Kim shot bolt upright, flipping up from the soft mattress, her perfect kip-up and somersault fouled by black satin sheets that tentacled around her legs. She fell, flopping heavily on her belly, her legs still on the unfamiliar rounded bed.

"Huh, whuzzats, up nnnn...?" she muttered, blinking blearily against the grey morning light. The bed was empty but for herself and several pillows strewn across. She could smell coffee in the air.

"No..... no.... nonononoNO!" she heard. She flipped over to find Shego standing before the large flatpanel television, gloriously naked, her green-tinted behind an immediate magnet for Kim's attention. She thought she would faint from the surging tide of desire that filled her, but the sight of the pool of steaming coffee slowly spreading from shards of a mug on the ground instantly cooled her ardour. The woman's hands pressed against the screen, the image rippling in the wake of her scrabbling fingers.

"Shego...?" Kim called softly. The woman froze, her head dropping for a long moment. Without a word, she walked quickly to the side of the bed. The hair only partially hid the woman's face; it was unusually pale and slack. Out of a wrenched open drawer, she seized a black duffel bag. The bed shook when the woman forced the drawer shut and stalked quickly to the bathroom, the door slamming shut. Kim's eyes widened as she realized what she was seeing.

Digital photography had come a long way since the first grainy pictures that enthusiasts had tinkered with. Today's cell-phones were able to take pictures of extreme definition and clarity unheard of even just three years ago.

As the neatly coiffured female anchor's words were teletyped onto the screen, Kim slowly slid to the floor. Untangling the sheet from around her legs, she stood, moving slowly to the screen, pulling the sheet protectively around her. The satin trailed behind her as she stumbled in disbelief toward the image that had captured her attention. She raised her hand and placed it against the screen.

The inset that hovered beside the anchor was a clear picture of a red-head and a light green skinned brunette locked in a passionate embrace. The background was dark but for the strobing fractal displays of the dance floor. The subject of the photograph was obvious. The facial features were clear and distinct, well balanced against the darkened club. The caption read "Kim Possible Caught On Film".

Inside the bathroom, Shego was franticly wrenching open hidden compartments and ramming the contents into the duffel bag. One revealed a computer screen and built-in keyboard. Her fingers flew over the keys, then using a claw, she tapped at a large biohazard icon twice. An alert window opened requesting authentication; she typed in a password, then put her finger in the small hole on a box beside the keyboard. After initiating a small green flare inside, a second window appeared, reading "Do you wish to execute?" Shego's hand barely hesistated, before tapping the screen over the "Yes" button, selecting it. Then she depressed another well concealed button on the tiles and a second panel slid out. Four catsuits hung from there, each with a few differences. She pulled one out that was a black matte with green trim and a thigh pouch. She paused, then grabbed a second one, her signature suit.

And all the while, her mind was screaming, _SHITSHITSHITSHITSHIT!!!_

She had no idea how long the story had been on the news, but once the Villains Association and Hench Co. caught wind of this, and someone of sufficient power and authority was woken with the unpleasant news, her head was up for grabs. Her hands shook as she swept her toiletries wholesale into the bag.

Outside, Kim could hear Shego moving around with thumps and mutters. A deep, pervasive sadness was welling up inside the hero. She could feel the woman slipping through her fingers with each passing second, as she read the closed captioning text.

"It's seven thirty-nine and you are watching us live at GNN. Thank you for joining us this morning. This morning's top headline, as you may have been hearing all morning, is of a photo that allegedly captures the internationally acclaimed hero, Kim Possible, in what seems to be a tryst with a dangerous, wanted criminal known only as Shego. GNN has exclusive rights to this photo, which was taken by Global News Network correspondent Autumn Gale. You might remember her for her coverage of the recent Justice department scandal of involving several Supreme Court Justices and crime figures. We have her live via satellite from Go City. Good Morning, Autumn, are you there?"

"Good Morning, I'm here Carmen."

"So for our viewers that are just joining us, could you give us an overview of why this is so serious?"

"Well, Kim Possible is one of the few international quasi-sanctioned heroes of the world. She's fought several science villians, and has been instrumental in foiling the plots by one particular villain known as Doctor Drakken. This Doctor Drakken is the most prolific of her particular bunch."

"So she is a crime-fighting vigilante?"

"That's right. She's been involved with several high-profile humanitarian initiatives and rescues, but her main purpose has been in heading off scientific villainy before any plots come to fruition."

"So what's the significance of this photo?"

"The photo was taken at Marshall's last night, a well known club that has been popular with the elite of practically every level of society. Entertainers, industry moguls and politicians all frequent the place, it's a craze that has never really gone away since it opened. The photo, if you could bring it up, is of Miss Possible and Shego at the club."

"Yes, but why is this news?"

"Well, Shego is the head henchwoman of Doctor Drakken, one of Miss Possible's current roster of villains. With Miss Possible and Shego in an obvious relationship, this raises several questions about Miss Possible's hero activities. Many members of congress have expressed concern in the past that allowing vigilante activities would only encourage street-justice, bypassing the entire Justice system. The argument is that such activity answers to no one. It operates without any of the checks and balances that our great nation is based on. It also calls into question Miss Possible's many victories against her adversaries. It's clear that she has some sort of romantic relationship with an active criminal. This compromises her security, and as such, the security of the nation and the world at large. This relationship Miss Possible is in possibly violates part of the Patriot Act. At the very least, she will be taken in for questioning. In this post nine-eleven world, no government can take any chances where public safety is of concern."

"So there are security issues that this photo raises?"

"That's right. And to give you the sense of exactly how serious this is being taken, the President himself has called an emergency closed cabinet meeting. The United Nations Security Council has also convened to discuss the matter. Interpol has not yet issued a statement, but we are told that the section heads are conferring to examine the problem, as are many security divisions of several other countries."

"Why are governments taking this so seriously?"

"The thing about this is that Miss Possible is very good at what she does. She's been fighting crime and saving lives since she was twelve. She is trusted by many crime-fighting agencies. She's also the role model for many girls. She's a well known public figure. This is a very hot political potato that the girl has dropped in the laps of various governments and crime agencies that have used her services in the past. She could potentially be a security leak. At the same time, it wouldn't be so serious if she was involved with a regular troubled person. But this is Shego we're talking about."

"She used to be a hero, didn't she?"

"That's right, she's a super who used to be part of the now defunct Team Go that used Go City as their base of operations. She became a villain about seven years ago, when she left Team Go. She's wanted in thirty-four countries, tops the list in eleven for the most wanted woman. She's an active villain. The NSA and FBI both have warrants for her arrest. Those warrants have her listed as armed and dangerous. Her file's been flagged as one of those villains to be designated as a terrorist in a bill that Congressman Phelps out of Florida is putting together-"

The screen suddenly turned black. Kim turned to see the woman standing at the foot of the bed, a black tense smudge against the dark grey skies of the morning. The woman had the remote in one hand and a duffel over her shoulder. Another fully packed duffel sat at her feet. She was fully clothed in what seemed like a black and green version of he battlesuit. Cold glowing eyes met her own, the villainess's face blank and distant.

"Time to leave," was all the woman said. Kim nodded wordlessly, her lips trembling. She nodded again viciously, and went to retrieve her clothing, strewn across the foot of the bed. Shego moved silently to the door, put on her shoes and stepped outside.

Kim moved as if in a dream, the unhappiness seeping out of her in a dull haze. Each motion threatened to cause the tears she was desperately holding back to tumble out. She could see it happening already, the rift and the tear, the wall that Shego was rebuilding with every second. She found her undergarments and put them on, then her skirt and belt. She found her choker, but the green dragon had been removed. That alone told her all she needed to know.

It was over.

Shego came back in as Kim picked up the leather collar. The woman stood by the door, not speaking, unable to. The threat of tears was all to real to her and the thief knew if she opened her mouth, she would not be able to carry out what was necessary. She needed to cut Kim loose, for both their sakes. She needed to lay low and Princess needed to go back to the safety of her loved ones; people she trusted, who could support her and keep her safe. Shego could only depend on herself and she needed to be at the top of her game when the shit that was already hitting the fan splattered everywhere.

Kim put on her sparkling shoes, making a sad wistful lip quirk, remembering what had happened just a mere ten hours ago. She slipped into them and walked silently out of Shego's home, through the false room, past the blast door and down the walk to the hoverpad, where the hoverpod stood, prepped and waiting. Kim strapped herself in, and as the cockpit bubble closed the booming sound of the blast door closing echoed through the cavern and the empty recesses of her rapidly shrivelling heart.

The hoverpod lift up and slewed towards the tunnel.

- KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP -

Kim wanted to talk to the green-tinted woman, but was afraid to start the conversation. She wanted to know if they were still together, if this was the end, if she could still see the woman she loved. From the way the woman was acting, she knew what the answer would be. She could not meet the woman's gaze and kept her eyes on the floor. The serious, shuttered face of the woman she loved was too painful to look at.

Shego, unbeknownst even to herself, felt the same. She was tense, her entire body screaming to just run, to take off and leave the girl behind. But she couldn't bring herself to do that. She knew she needed to get Kim home. Kim being safe meant another avenue closed, more security for herself. And if she left Kim now, before the shit really began to spread, perhaps the teen could return to some semblance of normalcy. But in deep down inside her she knew this was all a lie. That she was doing what she did in the past. History repeating itself.

She was running away.

She knew she wasn't strong enough to face the oncoming storm. The signs were out and the F-Five was coming, with no shelter in sight. She would be swept away in the maelstrom and dashed against the rocks of the surge of negative sentiment and villain backlash. She needed to hide, to lay low.

The silence between them was a thunderously deafening scream of tension. Kim sat, hunched in her seat, Shego, her claws gripping the control stick with uncharacteristic strength. The longer it lasted, the harder it was to say anything. The silence stretched a cellophane separation between the two women.

Kim felt betrayed, not by the woman, who had been nothing but honest with her, but by her traitorous feelings. If she had never fallen for the woman, this would never had happened. Why did it have to be her? Why was she 'The One?' But she was. And there wasn't a single thing she would have done differently. But she didn't, she couldn't fight both the public and Shego at the same time. If the comet-powered woman wanted to leave, she would let her go. Even if she fell apart, she would understand. She would accept it.

Could she? She was Kim Possible, not just some floozie or one night stand girl that was another notch in anyone's belt. She had opened her heart to this wonderfully contradictory woman who was so full of life and experience, but so scarred and scared. She had been vulnerable before this woman and had felt the woman's acceptance. Could she just simply let it go? Would she regret that one thing, that she had not stayed to fight for what she considered 'The One?' Kim bit her lip, watching the tense figure that gripped the pilot stick.

And what if Shego really wanted to end things? Kim shook her head, not wanting to think about such an eventuality, but her mind would not leave it alone.

For Shego, the silence was a much needed place for her to build her cocoon, rebuild her walls and her self-assurance. To know that the next step was the right step, the thing that needed to be done, and that it was the true and only path. She used each passing second to harden herself, to cut away each and every memory of the red head that had invaded her. Who had shown her love unyielding, unafraid of the hurt to come.

Whom she feared she...

And so, she was going to let the girl go, and let this be her one and only gift she felt she could give freely to the amazing hero who had rescued her from an abyss she never realized she had chosen for her own isolation. She was no longer the demons that had been unleashed by Pandora, but she was the fated woman herself, who was to unleash hope unto what had become the entirety of her world in the form of Kim Possible.

They were passing above the freeway that ran through Middleton and connected it to the entire Tri-city area of Lowerton and Upperton. Kim's house was just over the next few major intersections. Already, to her trained eye, she could see the swarm of photographers that encroached, in their all consuming greed and torturous hunger for news, edging onto the lawn of the Possible property. Three blue suited Global Justice officers stood to the side, near a hovercraft. On the other, three men in dark suits and black Cadillacs. Feds. Her trained eye picked out one, two, three, four snipers.

Time to execute.

Shego turned on the carefully programmed autopilot and turned to the anguished Kim.

"Well, Princess," Shego smiled. She was amazed that her voice neither cracked nor wavered under the onslaught of emotion running rampant beneath her calm veneer. "It's been a slice." But as the words left her mouth, those gleaming eyes regarding her hardened.

"No."

"What?" Shego though Kim would either blubber and cry, or just nod and turn away. Kim's response was one that she hadn't really thought would happen.

"I'm not letting you leave me, Shego."

"C'mon Princess, we had fun and that's that. Now, it's time to return to the real world, the one that chews you up and spits you out. It's over." Shego's mind raced. She'd have to finish this faster than she'd anticipated. Her elbow nudged the accelerator control of the autopilot.

"No Shego. I love you. I don't want this, I know you don't-"

"What do you know what I want? I've told you over and over what might happen. And oh! Look who was right all along! This was a bad idea. We were a bad idea!"

"We're perfect together! What's so bad about that?"

"So what, are you going to suggest we run? I've been there Princess, and it ain't pretty. I'm not doing it again, especially not with you in tow. You're going to run out on your parents? Your friends? Ron? Your whole saving the world thing?" Shego pointed at the fast approaching Possible household. "You see those suits? Secret Service ready to take you in. And those GJ goons? They're to take me in. We've just passed the three cordons of snipers. It's time to go back to the world, Kimmie! It's over!"

"The world doesn't mean anything to me if you're not in it." Kim's low voice. Shego felt her resolve tearing itself apart and with a fierce force of will, held her ground. "It's not over until we say so!" Kim's words were an intense growl.

They were both standing now. Their breathing laboured, their chests heaving from released emotion. Shego steeled herself.

"It's over." She knew it was the trigger she needed.

Kim lunged at her, the thin peach arms reaching to wrap around her. It was a last desperate attempt to reconnect something that was fading, disappearing right before her very eyes. And Shego allowed the attack to connect, as brief as it was, knowing this was the last time she would have this little piece of heaven.

The sliver of time that allowed their lips to rest against each other was a mule kick of emotion that neither would ever forget, could ever forget. Even as Kim's arms went around her shoulders, Shego keyed the explosive emergency cockpit bubble release. She slipped under Kim's closing left arm, lowered her left shoulder under the charging teen's centre of gravity, her right arm expertly reaching under Kim's left thigh. She pivoted. In the corner of her eye, she could see the media hounds surge against the picket of local Middleton constabulary, the three Global Justice figures, one of them Betty Director herself, rushing toward the lowering hoverpod as it shimmered into view.

"Goodbye, Kim," Shego whispered into the young hero's ear. Then she finished her pivot and lifted.

Kim was airborne for less than two seconds before she crashed into the trio of charging Global Justice operatives. Kim immediately kipped up, but fell to her knees, gasping from having the air knocked out of her, her shocked eyes looking up at the evil grin she had come to love, beaming its contempt down at her. Flashes strobed across the panorama of breaking hearts.

"Too bad I couldn't finish wrapping you around my finger, Princess," came Shego's mocking voice, clear and cruel over the tumult of the media. Microphones were held high in the air to capture the rest of her words. Cameras were trained on the scene. Shego forced out the rest of the words, dripping with malice, "but consider yourself dumped."

The hoverpod lifted straight up, the cockpit bubble slamming down. Even as she sped away, the hoverpod shimmering into stealthmode and out of sight, she thought she could feel the shocked and betrayed green eyes piercing her back. The sharp, staccato cracks of sniper rifles and sparks of ricochets trailed behind her.

She slumped down over the control panel. This was the right thing to do, right?

This was the right thing to do, for both of them, right?

So why was she crying?

- KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP -

Behind her, a kneeling figure was bent over, shoulders shaking, tears streaming down her cheeks, her hands covering her mouth as the Global Justice operatives assisted the Middleton Police in holding the rabid media back, Doctor Elizabeth Director placing herself in the path of the on-coming Secret Service agents even as Anne and James Possible rushed from the house to bring their little girl into the relative safety of their home.

Kim knew she was home.

She was home.

And she wanted to die.


	25. Got Me Lyrics

**Got Me**  
**by Clara Klein and Marcus Trulli**  
**Performed by Stars and Crosses**

You're the sugar, I'm the spice  
Yeah, we fit, we fit real nice  
You're the singer, I'm the song  
A side, B side, we get along

Everyone keeps trying but they won't tear us apart  
Yeah, well, they all know that you got me from the start  
Oh, yeah

Oh no, I'm your fading star  
Like one more number at the bar  
X and O, that's how it blows  
Is this for real, is this my show?

Everyone keeps trying but they won't tear us apart  
Yeah, well, they all know that you got me, got me  
Yeah, everyone keeps trying but they won't tear us apart  
Yeah, well, they all know that you got me from the start  
Oh, yeah

Yeah, it's falling apart  
Like they said  
Now we're moving on  
Oh, like they said

Everyone keeps trying but they won't tear us apart  
Yeah, well, they all know that you got me, got me  
Yeah, everyone keeps trying but they won't tear us apart  
Yeah, well, they all know that you got me from the start  
Oh, yeah


	26. Chapter Thirteen: Got Me

A/N:

Kim Possible and related characters © Disney

Got Me © Stars and Crosses

I own Carmen Marshall, Autumn Gale and Eddie.

Lily is on loan from Love Robin.

**- KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - **  
**  
Chapter Thirteen: Got Me**_  
_**One Way or Another**_  
by sweetPixiesmile_

Anne and James sat at the kitchen table across from each other, mugs of coffee in their hands. It was early in the day. Both of them typically would have been out the door twenty minutes ago on a regular normal day. On a regular normal day, They would have kissed each other goodbye and taken their respective cars, one heading west to the Middleton Space Centre just outside of town, the other to Middleton General. On a regular normal day, James would have been already kibitzing with the construction crew and Anne would have been reviewing her charts for the day's surgeries. The tableau was a very normal scene of a husband and wife sharing the morning together with a bit of coffee.

But today was not a normal day.

Today, their smart phones sat before them, silent and mute. The telephone was disconnected. The television was off. Today, was a day that they never imagined would ever come.

Today was the day after their daughter was dumped on national television by an active villainess. The secret was out. The cat was out of the bag. Kim's innocent passion had opened Pandora's box, and now, the demons were running amok.

The kitchen would have been silent, if not for the media helicopters circling above. Already, the Middleton Police had cordoned off their lawn, moving the media to the other side. Worse yet, protesters had begun appearing in droves, shouting unkind and obscene things. Their morality was questioned. Their ethics. Their fitness as parents. Even their patriotism. Their workplaces had contacted them and asked them to stay home until their respective governing boards could devise a measured response and solution to the droves of reporters, cameramen, celebrity chasers, morality fanatics and paparazzi that were now prowling the streets of Middleton. Kim could see the strain on the taut faces of her parents, and her heart ached at the pain they endured.

She'd cried all night, trying to purge herself of it. When her father had lifted her bodily and carried her into the house, she was near inconsolable. Her mother had gently lead her to the bathroom to clean up and change. The efficient surgeon's hands helped her remove her makeup, put away all the accessories, helped her into a tub, where her tears mingled with the bubbles her mother had put into the water. Then, with infinite care, the woman had lead her heartsick daughter to bed and quietly closed the door. Kim had cried, helplessly, listlessly the rest of the night, before falling asleep in the small hours of the morning. And when she awoke, she felt wooden and sore.

But it was strange.

It was weird.

She thought she'd feel more devastated than this. More hurt, more vengeful. More betrayed.

But every time she thought of Shego, which was practically all the time, she didn't feel hurt. It wasn't that desperate, terrifying chasm that she thought she might feel. Something that sapped her will to live and her determination to follow her heart.

No, each time she thought about that beautiful green villainess, she felt a warm glowing brand inside her, sending warmth and strength to her limbs.

It's not to say that she didn't feel pain. She felt the pain of their separation. The pain of their disconnection. The pain of how it ended, had to end. But her promise held true, much to her own surprise.

There were no regrets.

Maybe it was because she understood. She understood Shego's reasons. She knew the woman hadn't needed to make her home or to dump her on national television. Already the news was all over the internet. Media postings of a cell phone video had already hit ten million views and was still growing.

Maybe it was because it was doomed from the start, at least according to hints Betty and Anne had dropped in the last few days.

Maybe it was because she had seen the sparkle in Shego's eyes as the woman had turned away, the cockpit bubble crashing shut.

Anne and James looked up to see the pale, drawn face of their daughter as she walked into the kitchen. She moved mechanically, even if the motions were smooth and precise. Her eyes, red and puffy from a night of tears, she opened the fridge and pulled out the milk, pouring herself a mug before putting the carton back. Anne stood up and went to Kim's side.

"How're you feeling, honey?" Anne asked, putting her arm around her precious, precious daughter.

"Well, I'm alive...," Kim mumbled, her voice trailing off. Anne's arm tightened around her shoulders.

"I know, baby, I know..."

All Kim could think about was how good Shego's arms had felt around her, and how much she wanted to feel that again. Tears of longing prickled her eyes, a calm and stinging reminder of good days past.

"You're up early, Kimmie-cub," James said gently. "You're not thinking of, uh..."

"Going to school?" Kim shook her head, dashing her tears away. "Sure, why not? I've only been dumped on national television. What more could high school do to me that I'd care about anyway?" Kim reluctantly moved away from her mother's comforting embrace. "I'd better get ready," she said wearily before leaving the kitchen. Anne glanced at James with a worried frown who shrugged, eyebrows raised.

"Now dear, we agreed if Shego wasn't using her in an evil plan... don't tap you lips like that, you always do that when you're plotting. And not 'the stare', it'll give you crow's feet..."

- KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP -

The whispering and pointing started even before she walked through Middleton High's doors.

She ran across the back of a few houses, flipping from roof to roof, before coming down. She glanced back down the block to where the reporters and cameramen still camped outside on the sidewalk and in their vans and vehicles, the noisy, nosey protesters shouting their slogans. Kim sighed and started walking to school.

A car full of Middleton University students drove by. One of them shouted "Hey, it's the vagitarian!"

At the cross walk, a gaggle of women from the local running club stopped beside her. Some sent furtive glances her way. When the light turned green one lagged behind and gave her a wink.

"Wouldn't kick her out of bed for eating crackers,..." the comment floated back to her. Her cheeks pinked in flattered outrage.

That seemed to set the tone for her day.

As she neared the school, a car behind her beeped. She turned to see a bright, blue eyed girl waving at her from the passenger seat of a sedan that slowed to a stop beside her.

Kim walked over to Tara, whose light blond hair shone in the morning sun as she leaned out of the car window. Hope, another member of the Middleton Cheer squad, whose long black straight hair was a thing of jealousy, was sitting in the back. She was carefully brushing the long lustrous locks. Beside her sat Marcella, one of the squad's more experienced spotters. She was touching up her makeup, carefully applying darkener to the mole above the left side of her mouth to give it better definition. It wasn't a paint-on mole, it was just that her regular mole only had a faded grayish look.

"Hi Tara, Hope, Marcie." Then Kim recognized the driver. "Uh... hi, Josh. What's up?"

"Kim, do you need a ride?" Tara asked. Kim knew Tara wasn't the brightest, but she had always had a big, warm heart. "We can drop you off behind the school."

"No thanks, I always walk to school."

"Kim, you don't understand, the reporters are all over the front doors. They're interviewing anybody who's willing to shoot their mouth off." Kim slapped a hand to her forehead.

"C'mon, Kim," Josh said, leaning over from the driver's side to look her in the eye. His unruly brown, blond highlit hair flopped over.

_A new look with a new girl_, Kim grimaced to herself.

"Let us help you."

Kim paused for a moment, considering.

"Thanks, guys, it really means a lot to me that you'd do this, but if I start sneaking around, people will think I have something to hide. And... ugh! Sorry Tara, but Bonnie's going to have a blast with this..."

"Look, Kim," Tara drew out her words, slowly, "I know Bonnie's always had a chip on her shoulder about you... but she's really not that bad..." Tara's eyes shifted lightly, looking away from Kim as she spoke.

"I know," Kim temporized. "I helped her find Junior, didn't I? And that weird bonding thing a month ago, we sort of... got along... in an a awkweird sort of way... I'm just glad I was never in school when her sisters were around... but we've been competitive for so long... No. I'm not going to hide and I'm not ashamed of anything I've done. I'll see you guys in school, okay?"

"If you say so, Kim. But you let us know if you need our help, alright?" Tara said, reaching out and taking Kim's hand in her own, giving it a squeeze.

"Yah, I will," Kim squeezed back before stepping back from the car. "I'll see you guys at practice." Kim started to walk again.

"I told you old tin teeth wouldn't go for it," she heard Hope snipe cruelly as the car pulled away from the curb. Marcella's giggle somehow seemed worse than the jibe.

"I dunno, she guess she really does love that She-Ra," Tara sighed, dreamily.

"Shego," Josh corrected. "Well, mission fouled..."

Kim bit back another body shaking pang of longing and a lesser spike of anger.

As she rounded the corner to the school, she could see the reporters swarming the sidewalk outside. Several students were being interviewed, some being very low-key, others gesticulating wildly. And right in the middle of it all was a ring of eager-eyed reporters surrounding a tanned, full-bosomed girl with mouse brown hair and bronze highlights. Students walked around her, shying or scrambling away as she approached the cruelly taunting classmate.

"Well, I've always suspected that she's never done this out of any goody-goody feelings. She's alway hogged the spotlight in cheer, top of the pyramid and everything, I wouldn't be surprised if this was just another publicity stunt-"

"Having a good time, Bonnie?"

Kim's deadpan cut across the brunette's tirade with a clarity that froze the massed media. Suddenly, the entire group shifted, splitting, the cameramen backing away for an angle, reporters and boom men scrambling forward, charging the red head for a word with the tarnished heroine. Kim expertly wove through the crush of charging bodies to stop beside her high school nemesis and rival.

"I guess Ron was such a bad choice he turned you gay, K," Bonnie shot back.

"Ron's been my best friend since pre-K. He's always watched out for me. He'll always be my best friend." Kim said, quietly.

"Everyone's heard the rumours you were a raging dyke, but I never thought you'd be stupid enough to date one of your villains!" There was a collective gasp at Bonnie's harsh words. Some of the other high schoolers whistled and hollered at the sheer audacity of the brunette.

Kim felt the painful separation anew deep down in some unfathomable part of herself. She blinked back the tears that threatened to come out.

"I... I don't want to fight you, B. But I won't back down from this," she said, looking the girl straight in the eye, even as her eyes glistened with unshed sorrow. "There's no wrong or right here. I fell for her. I might even die for her. But I don't regret it." Kim turned to leave, but looked back over her shoulder at the triumphant girl. "Maybe one day you'll understand." It took Bonnie a moment to recover from Kim's sudden retreat.

"Aw, did I hit a nerve, K? See you in class, loser!"

Big Mike went to detention for beating people for saying bad things about Kim before she arrived and stopped it, thanking him with a hand on his arm. In all her classes, there were whispers and stares. A few girls avoided her, sometimes just stopping dead in their tracks before hurriedly heading down a different corridor. Others just slipped by with their friends, trailing twitters of laughter behind. Still others would slip by her very close, and palm her their phone numbers, whispering mildly offensive promises of wild, mind blowing sex.

Kim wondered if she was the only girl who wasn't so focused on sex. Or maybe there was something wrong with her. Was she so naive and innocent that sex didn't seem like a big deal to her? Or that she didn't want it with just anyone? Same sex relations had identical health hazards as opposite-sex, even without the threat of pregnancy. Were girls really like this? Well, alright, Monique had told her things. That girl, she burned through boys like one of Dementor's ELBs on a Gherkin jar. And some of the things the cheer squad would talk about on road trips turned her as red as her hair. She supposed that some girls had to be all about... _that_. She'd been on group dates and the like, but nothing really serious. It was more like just hanging out with friends.

But then, when it came to Shego, something deep inside her would quiver with excitement; a deep, dark ocean of desire would well up inside her, a fretful wave of emotion that was as entrancing as it was dangerous.

Monique showed up at her first free period and hugged her, and led her to the spot where Kim had first revealed her relationship with Shego. Kim couldn't muster a smirk at the irony.

"How you doin' GF?" she asked, her large chocolate eyes full of worry and concern as they sat side by side. Kim gave her a brittle smile.

"I... hanging in there, I guess. Wish this day would be over! All the staring and the whispering... and the weird sex proposals..." Kim shuddered. "Is it true that people have been saying I'm a d-d-... lesbian?" Kim finally got out. Monique sighed.

"Well, yeah, I guess they have been. You know how losers think. It's all about the SAF. You have a way high SAF, but you don't have an official or a steady. You don't hook up with anyone. You don't even have a beard!"

"SAF?"

"Sex Appeal Factor."

"Beard?"

"Fake boyfriend, like a French manicure."

"Oh." Kim felt like she had been fighting all morning and was dead tired. Her neck was sore, her head ached and her back was killing her.

"I wanna talk to Ron, but I haven't seen him all morning..."

"Haven't seen him either."

They sat silently, side by side for a moment.

"I miss her, Mon'. I love her, and I miss her," Kim whispered. Monique put a comforting arm around her friend's shoulders.

"Yeah," she replied. "Yeah, I know."

Kim struggled to keep her composure the rest of the day. She was looking forward to cheer practise, a time to blow off some steam and perhaps forget about what was happening. During English class, the Principle's secretary, Mrs. Fosse came knocking on the classroom door, asking for Kim. She followed the wake of the old lady, a near fixture of Middleton High, having served seven different principals over forty years.

"Sorry for all the uh, trouble outside, Mrs. Fosse," Kim said as they walked past the biology lab, a favourite lookout for hallway monitors. "And thanks for not using the PA system."

"Don't worry, Kim. You'll always be a hero in my book, no matter who you're banging," the elderly secretary replied smoothly, then laughed at Kim's blushing face. "Here you go, dear," she said as they arrived at the office.

Kim swallowed as she pushed open the door.

The Principal's office hadn't changed since Kim had entered Middleton High three years ago. Two large bookshelves lined the right wall. Pictures and framed diplomas and degrees hung by the door. A grayish green metal desk dominated the room, a nice plush leather office chair behind the old utilitarian metal furniture. Nice cloth curtains hung from faux wood rods on the windows, flanking the desk. The left wall was shored up by two nondescript file cabinets, the same greenish-grey.

The last time Kim had been in the Principal's office was to speak to her about her hero work. Mrs. McAlistar, a slightly pear-shaped woman with stylish glasses, had been enthusiastic, already familiar with the teen's burgeoning reputation. Her bob-cut greying hair had flown about as she had nodded energetically at Kim's request to be specially exempt when an emergency call would arrive.

Principal McAlistar was not in her office.

Sitting in one of the chairs before an old metal desk was a man Kim had never really liked. Not because he was mean, or cruel or petty. She did not approve of his carrot and stick methodology, inherent distrust of students, and his insufferably condescending tone.

"Mr. Barkin?" Kim said, wondering what was going on. The Principal's chair stood empty.

"Ms. Possible. Please have a seat," he said, gesturing at the chair beside him.

"What's going on, Mr. Barkin?" she asked as she sat. The barrel chested man stood and moved to the window. He pulled open the drawn curtains to reveal the swarm of reporters hovering across the street.

"Mrs. McAlistar is at a PTA meeting right now, so I am filling in for her," Barkin's suspicious voice rumbled. He glanced back at Kim with narrowed eyes. "The meeting is about you."

"A meeting?" Kim frowned.

_No... it couldn't be... could it?_

"An emergency meeting. Yes. About your little... drama... yesterday."

"About me?" Kim silently groaned inside. Mister Barkin let the curtain fall and turned smartly to sit on the edge of the desk. He regarded Kim as if contemplating an insect he would like to step on.

"I always knew you were trouble, Possible. With your... extracurricular... activities, it's a wonder you can keep such good grades or attendance." Barkin paused before continuing. "But, you've kept your nose clean... for the most part. Mrs. McAlistar feels that she must attend to argue in your favour if any censoring motions appear at the meeting."

Kim's face flushed at the thought of the old Principal doing that for her. Then she looked Barkin in the eye.

"And what about you, Mr. Barkin? What do you think?" The tall ex-marine's eyebrows lifted in surprise at Kim's question. He considered the question for a moment before responding.

"You know," he began, " I was in Desert Shield, and following that, Desert Storm. Hot work, that. Saw things no one should see. Served with good men. Worked with militia. Was mustered out for Gulf War Syndrome. My opinion? You've served the old stars and stripes better than most. That will be all, Possible." Kim turned to leave. At the door she stopped and turned.

"Thanks for letting me know,... sir." she said, before closing the door softly behind her.

"Good luck," she heard him murmur under his breath.

After Trigonometry, Kim headed for the locker room, her pompoms and her freshly pressed uniform in her messenger bag. As she rounded the corner to the locker room, she was greeted with an odd sight. The cheer squad, still in street clothing, was milling about around the locker room entrance. Tara and Crystal, a cafe au lait from Morocco and a very steady base for the squad, were looking unhappy, while the others, Marcella, Hope and Liz, a wavy haired redhead, looked angry. The muttering stopped as they noticed her. She was getting weird vibes, but stuffed down her suspicions and walked up. The angry ones moved to block her way.

"Hey guys, what's up?" Kim stopped, pretending nothing was going on. Tara slipped into the locker room, clearly upset. Crystal paused, not sure what to do, before hurrying after the blond.

"We had a vote, K" came a snide voice from behind her.

"What are you up to, Bonnie," Kim sighed in exasperation as she turned around to face the the bane of her middle school and high school life. Bonnie sauntered up.

"We had a vote and we've decided that you can't change in the locker room with us." Bonnie's smirk was nearly the last straw. She clenched her fist. Kim's stress was boiling over.

"Bonnie, whatever you're trying to pull-"

"Because you're off the team."

"it's not going to-, WHAT?" Kim stared, her mouth open in mid-sentence. She couldn't believe it. She turned to the other squad members, her mouth open. A sudden flash caught her off-guard. Marcella lowered her cell phone.

"The look on your face was worth all these years of humiliation," Bonnie smirked.

"We had a vote," Hope chimed in, speaking as if to a child, "and booted you off the team."

"But... but what about the regionals? I've got the routine all worked out, it'll be killer-"

"Aw, K, it's so good to hear you beg, and feels even better for me to say... NO." Bonnie batted her eyes at her. She brushed by the stunned Kim.

"Marcie... Liz... why?" Liz had the grace to look away, but Marcella stood her ground, glaring defiantly. Bonnie looked over her shoulder.

"Things have changed, okay? We don't want you and we don't need you. Go home. There's nothing for you here." With that, the girls filed into the locker room and closed the door with a resounding thud.

Kim stood, root to the spot, unsure of what she should or could do. With slumping shoulders, she turned around and walked slowly to the exit. She stopped before the double doors and pulled out her cell phone. She dialled a number she'd been trying all day. The call connected but went straight to voice mail.

"Ron," she said after the beep, "where are you, I really need to talk to you. Call me, okay, please?"

With a groan of frustration, she put away her cell phone and prepared to head home.

She snuck out the back of the school, not wanting to deal with the waiting reporters. Unfortunately, one alert, sharp-eyed cameraman spotted her and she was forced to run for it. She eventually lost them after cutting across several blocks. She leaned against a back-alley fence, catching her breath, before expertly gripping the eaves trough and flipped onto the roof of the house, then leaped across the top of the next few houses to get home.

But home was not better. She forced herself to eat her mother's brainloaf, a brain shaped meatloaf, and was unresponsive to the tweebs' sniping. Confronted with the worried looks on her parents faces, she called it an early night and turned in. She felt bruised and battered, even though no one had laid a hand on her. She changed into her pyjamas and snuggled into bed.

Yet try as she might, she couldn't sleep. She tossed. She turned. She lay on her back, her side, her front. She tried counting sheep, attempted some math problems, even tried naming every single movie she'd ever seen. After several sleepless hours, she got up and went to her closet. She pushed a few shirts aside to reveal a security scanner. She place her palm flat on the circular scan pad and a panel in the back wall of her closet slid open. It revealed two pieces of clothing, one white and blue, the other, black and green. She took out the black and green catsuit.

Returning to bed, she took one of her pillows and stuffed it inside the catsuit, then tucked her self in, laying the surrogate beside her.

"Good night," she said, her voice thick with emotion, her arms wrapped around the tight fitting cloth. She thought she could still smell Shego's unique scent on the old suit she'd worn when she had been mind chipped.

Within minutes, she was asleep.

- KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP -

Kim awoke to the sound of the door bell chiming through the Possible house. She groaned, not wanting to get up, but then wondered if it might be Ron. She struggled out of her pyjamas and into her home clothes, a lime green mid-riff t-shirt and blue corduroy yoga pants and slipped down the stairs that led from her attic bedroom. As she hit the second floor, she could hear the mutter of strained voices.

_Not Ron... then who...?_

She paused at the top of the stairs to the main floor and peeked past the banister.

She was greeted by the sight of her tall, statuesque mother squaring off with a squat, bespectacled, curly haired woman. Kim ducked down to remain unnoticed as she eavesdropped.

"But you can't do this! She hasn't even been summoned, or given a chance to defend herself."

"Now, now Anne, this is not a suspension. This is a request from the Association that Kim stay at home until we can guarantee the safety of our students. All our students."

"She's done nothing wrong, Clarisse Rockwaller! Why is she the one being punished?"

"In a few weeks time, when the Chairman of the Board of Education is back in town, we will reconvene. But as of now, the Association is working very closely with the school to get those reporters off the property and keep the environment from turning bad for everyone."

"A few weeks?" Her mother's incredulous voice was rising in volume. "It's Kim's graduation year! Mid-terms are next week! You can't be serious!"

"About safety, always, Anne. Now, you may be a Doctor, but us stay-at-home moms know quite a bit about safety, and the personal lives of our children."

There was a growl and the sound of a short scuffle.

"Well, thanks for dropping by, Clarisse," came her father's strained voice. Kim watched as Anne stomped past the stairs and into the kitchen. This was the first time she'd ever seen such an expression of barely controlled fury on her mother's face. "We appreciate a personal visit with the news."

"Thank you, James. You've always been so courteous. Well, then I'll be off. I'm taking a jet over to New York today to have lunch with Mister... oh, what's his name... Truman? Trap?"

"Trump?"

"Yes, I think so. Ta-ta!"

The sound of the door closing cut off the fading quick staccato clicking of heels. Kim sat down on the third stair from the top of the flight, her mind whirling. Bonnie's mother was the President of the PTA. A long standing rivalry between her mother and Bonnie's nearly mirrored her own competition with the younger Rockwaller.

"Kimmie-cub?" Kim looked up to see her father paused in the landing, on his way to the kitchen, noticing her. "Um... how much did you hear?"

"Enough," Kim sighed. "So... a suspension that isn't a suspension?"

"Looks like it. I'm sorry, Kimmie, but they do have a point."

"Don't they always," Kim groaned. "Like mother, like daughter, I guess."

"What do you mean, honey?" James walked to the bottom of the stairs and leaned an arm on the railing.

"Just that I got kicked off the squad yesterday."

"I thought you came home early, but I didn't think you wanted to talk about it. You looked like you were having a pretty bad day."

"I was, Daddy. And today doesn't look like it'll be any different." James looked up at her speculatively.

"How about I make some waffles? Come on down, we can make the batter together."

"Waffles?" James had won several local waffle competitions. "The Space Centre hasn't called you back yet?"

"Not exactly, Kimmie," James leaned forward, and spoke conspiratorially. "I've applied for some stress time, so I'm off for a while. Your mother, though..."

"Let me guess. The hospital hasn't called yet."

"Actually, they have, but they said it'll take about three more days to coordinate extra security with the local police and emergency crews."

"Mom must be climbing the walls."

"Which reminds me, I'd better talk to her before she starts... uh... calling in the... um, lawyers...! Come down when you're ready, alright?"

"Yeah. Sure daddy."

Kim speculated that she must have gotten her skills at dissembling from her father.

As her father hurried to the kitchen, the door bell rang again.

"I'll get it," Kim called out, unsure that she should or not. She pulled open the door. Standing there was Lily in her full dark blue with grey trim Junior Global Justice uniform, complete with armoured, shoulder-padded bolero jacket.

"Oh, um, hey, Lily..."

"Step out of the house, Possible," glowered the one-eyed girl. "Doctor Director wants to see you."

"Now?"

"We have to be in her office in fifteen minutes."

"Fifteen-, Lily, what's going on?"

"It's not for me to say," the younger teen's face hardened into a scowl, moving to the patio door.

"Alright, it's not as if I've anywhere to go today... gimme a sec." Kim took two stairs at a time up to her attic room, pausing to pick up her Kimmunicator watch from the nightstand and her messenger bag by her desk. She took two steps at a time coming down, before poking her head into the kitchen. Anne was sitting quietly at the table with a warm cup of coffee in her hands, her eyes closed. James was pulling out a container full of flour.

"Sorry, Daddy, but Doctor Director wants to see me."

"No waffles?" James looked so childishly crushed, it brought a small smile to her lips.

"No waffles," Kim confirmed, sighing melodramatically. She stopped at the landing to pick up a pair of shoes, then joined Lily by the patio door. Lily slid open the door, her face carefully immobile.

"Backyard for privacy?" Kim raised an eyebrow and a smile as she sat down with her shoes.

"You want the media to get a good look at our chute system?"

"Back for lunch?" she heard James call out.

"I dunno, I'll call," she replied over her shoulder as she put on her shoes. Her rocket shoes. You never know when you might need some serious speed. "Bye!"

"Be safe, Kimmie-cub!"

As she headed out she hear her mother speaking.

"Honey, let's make some batter..." Kim's face flamed bright red at her mother's suggestive tone, clapping her hands to her ears just in case. As her foot came down on the grass outside her home, a dark hole opened and she fell into the blackness with an odd mixture of relief and annoyance.

- KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP -

"That was short," Kim commented as she packed away her hair brush, Lily rolling out of he transport tube with practised ease.

"Quickly, we need to get to the office in two minutes," Lily said, rushing out of the transport hub. Kim sighed before trotting after the taller girl. They ran past the control room with the large monitors and banks of control stations. They hurried down the winding corridors to where Betty's secretary was holding open the heavy security door, motioning for them to go in immediately.

Betty looked up as they entered. She had obviously been pacing, the carpet ruffled and worn, her hands clasped behind her.

"Kim!" Her face brightened noticeably as the red-head surged past Lily to stop just mere feet away from the voluptuous Director. The tall woman seemed to take an involuntary step in her direction, closing the gap to an arm's length.

"What's the sitch, Betty?" Kim asked, laying a hand on the woman's arm.

"There's a development, I need to brief you," the tall brunette said, her eye moving to the girl behind Kim. Lily shut the security door behind her as she stepped outside.

"In a moment, I will be receiving the call from the UN. The Security Council has reached an interim decision regarding you. I believe immediately after, we will be speaking directly with the United States President himself."

"Th-the President!" Kim touched her hair and looked down at her clothing. She was going to be speaking with the President, but in her grubbies?

_OH MY GAWD!_

"Let me explain... no, it's too much. Let me sum up. The UN is debating your participation in security matters. As is the US President and his Joint-Chiefs. They will be contacting us here shortly with their decisions regarding you. This is all high, high level Kim. Do you know that your hero track record is so good that if you were ever to retire or be killed, the Joint Chiefs are to go to DefCON Two?" Kim's eyes widened at that news. "Yes, Kim. It's really that serious." Betty's single dark eye flashed brilliantly. "And you really are that good," she smirked.

"To continue, since you're sponsored by GJ which is under UN jurisdiction, I have the inside track. I suspect they will make an interim decision and allow you to continue hero work in some form, with strict sanctions under Global Justice. But with the President... who knows which way the political winds are blowing right now?"

Betty broke off as a soft chime sounded. Kim's head was whirling with all the things Betty had said. She felt a weird sense of dislocation. Her world was shifting, moving in directions she was unsure of, vectors unseen, forces unknown. She felt precariously balanced on a very dangerous trap that could be set off with the wrong winds of change. Betty raised her eyebrow significantly, gesturing for Kim to sit at her desk. Kim sat down gingerly, looking into a camera the blue suited woman pointed at, situated on the corner of the large desk. Beside the camera was a screen. Betty pressed a button on the side of her desk and a red light on the camera flickered on, the screen behind showing a message that read "Connecting..."

After a moment, the screen darkened, then flickered. The head and shoulders image of a man of Asian descent flickered to life. He wore a dark, tailored. His hair was neatly parted and combed to one side above his rounded face.

"President Zhang Yesui, it is good to see you again, although I would have preferred in different circumstances," Betty said.

"Doctor Director, I too share your feelings. I will be brief, as we are in short recess for the moment." The mild brown eyes shifted to Kim. "And this must be the redoubtable Kim Possible."

"This is Kim Possible. Kim, Ambassador Zhang is the current President of the United Nations Security Council."

"Mister Zhang," Kim greeted him, attempting to fake a smile. Then her eyes blinked. "Mister Zhang, have we met before?"

"I am pleased to finally meet you, Miss Possible. Indeed, your memory is prodigious. I was present when you thwarted an attack by Monkey Fist at the National Museum of China, two years ago. I was one of the delegates held hostage by the madman's monkey minions."

"I'm sorry I can't say I'm pleased to meet you right now, uh... considering..."

"Ah yes, well to business. I will shortly be announcing that the United Nations will authorize an investigation on you and your once paramour, Shego. The United Nation will direct Global Justice to refuse assignation of security related missions to you during the interim, until the investigation is completed. We make the same request to you and Team Possible."

Kim felt strange. Her fate was in the hands of strangers, people she had never met.

"President Zhang, do you mean to say that Kim is still available to take on sanctioned, charitable missions?" Betty asked quickly.

"Yes, that is the second part of the statement. It is my understanding that Interpol and the European Union will be making their determination in a few days time, and until then, they will also similarly embargo security missions." Betty sighed in frustration. "Yes, Doctor Director, that means that Global Justice will have to take on those missions."

"Not what I was hoping for, but better than I'd feared."

"Indeed. I expect you shall hear from Interpol soon. Monsieur Baptiste has told me that they will follow the UN's lead, but Mister Sporin has not been as forthcoming." Betty leaned close to Kim, her mouth close to her ear.

"French Ambassador Baptiste, United States Ambassador Sporin," Betty whispered in her ear. Kim nodded as Betty straightened and addressed the screen.

"Thank you, President Zhang, for taking the time to speak with us."

"No, thank you, Miss Possible," President Zhang looked Kim in the eye. "It is still an honour to speak to you, however so briefly or in such circumstances. You have saved millions of my countrymen, something the politicos may forget, but I assure you, your name is on the lips of many. Most are confused, since alternative lifestyles are not well accepted in my country." President Zhang's face was impassive, neither apologetic nor condemning. That kind of bland attitude caused a tiny worm of discomfort light upon her.

"Thanks for talking to me, President Zhang," Kim chose to say.

"It has been my pleasure. And Miss Possible... good luck." With that, the screen blinked dark, with a message on the screen, reading "Connection closed."

"Betty, I-" Kim was interrupted by another soft chime. Betty gave Kim a warning scowl, then her face softened, and she nodded toward the camera and screen combination. Betty connected the call and almost immediately they were faced with a bespectacled woman whose dark chestnut hair was pulled into a tight bun. She wore a tailored jacket and ivory blouse.

"Freida...?" Betty frowned, puzzled. "What-?" The woman's face was openly apologetic.

"I'm sorry, Betty, but the President is very busy right now. He's preparing to tackle the environmental bill that's going to vote, so he's asked me to speak with you in his stead."

"Kim Possible, this is Freida MacIntyre. She's one of the the White House aides." Betty's voice was slightly frosty. Kim looked down to see Betty rubbing her thumb's fingernail with her ring finger; it was one of the few tells that Kim had spotted when Betty was repressing strong emotion.

"Nice to meetcha, Freida," Kim simpered. Betty's rubbing quickened.

"The pleasure's all mine, Kim," Freida said, picking up on Kim's use of her first name. Kim wondered if her fake teen ploy would work on this woman; she had to be pretty sharp to be one of the President's aides. "I understand that the UN has reached a decision?"

"An interim decision," Betty said crisply.

"C'mon, Betty, don't be like that."

"Freida, I know you're going to give us bad news if the big dog's sent you calling instead of himself." The woman sighed.

"Can you blame him? It's getting close to re-election year, and Congress is in an uproar about the whole thing."

"And you wonder why I went into international crime."

"Instead of skirt chasing congresswomen?" The woman laughed. Kim carefully kept her face neutral before carefully adopted an artfully innocent look. Betty rolled her eye. The woman's dark brown eyes spotted her look and laughed again.

"She really is just too precious, isn't she, Betty?"

"You might as well give it to us, Freida," the Director of Global Justice sighed.

"Well, it's as you guessed, Betty. Complete and total cessation of activity within any and all territories of the United States, including military and scientific jurisdictions. A complete ban on any requests."

"What?" Kim blurted out. A sudden wave of rage surged inside her, her pulse sky rocketing, thundering in her ears. She completely missed Betty's next words. She could feel the heat radiating from her crimson face and wrestled down her wash of emotion. She couldn't believe it. She was born in America, raised in America. The United States was her home!

"I'm sorry Kim, but the Joint Chiefs' closed door debate was pretty lively. But you'll never guess who went to bat for you."

"The military?"

"Uh,... no. They actually argued to put you on the Terror Watch List."

"WHAT?" Kim's gasp was loud and jarring. "What's with all the over-reactions? It's not as if I'd turned evil overnight or something!"

"I know, and really, I'm sorry Kim, but you being so good at what you do and taking on defence threats, even if a lot of the people in the forces adore you, the higher-ups just think you make them look bad."

"Then... who...?"

"Homeland Security?" Betty asked. The smug, satisfied smile on the screen said it all.

"I can never get anything past you, can I?" Freida winked at Betty.

"Homeland? But why...?" Kim wondered aloud.

"They didn't like your vigilante-ism... but they admired your courage and public image. They said that if the government completely banned you, they would risk having to raise the Terror Alert to Red, the FPCON to Charlie, not to mention having to raise REDCON to One Point Five."

"We'd have to raise our threat and readiness levels as well," Betty shook her head.

"Really Betty? The President wanted to allow Kim to continue, but his advisors..."

"Re-election year? The bread basket raising a stink in Congress?"

"It's out of our hands, at this point. The election machine is revving up, the delegates are getting themselves all sorted out, and the backroom negotiations are red hot already." Freida gave Kim another apologetic look. "Sorry Kim. The President wishes it wouldn't have happened this way."

"I-," Kim swallowed nervously. "I understand. Thanks for the call."

"I'm sorry, Kim." With that, Freida cut the connection.

Kim stared at her hands, that sat in her lap. She couldn't believe that her carte blanche had been revoked in the good old US-of-A, that she would not longer be allowed to be a hero in her own country. The country that her friends and her family lived. The place that Shego lived, and breathed, and dreamt and... to the United States of America, she was no longer a hero.

It hurt. It was a dull, tingling, strength draining ache that permeated her limbs. She felt a hand grip her shoulder and she looked up slowly at the concerned, tanned face.

"Kim, are you alright?" Kim hunched forward, shaking off the hand.

"I-" Kim stopped. She didn't want to lie, not to a good friend like Betty. "No Betty. I'm having the lousiest last couple of days in my entire life! And I've done nothing wrong! This just really, really, really sucks!"

"Kim... it's not going to get any better, not for a little while. I know you haven't done anything wrong, that you wouldn't. But people who don't know you will judge you based on their own prejudices. When you told me that you were dating Shego, I didn't know what to think. You wouldn't believe how I worried! But in the end, I forced myself to trust you. My mind told me this was going to end badly, but I decided to follow my heart instead." Betty's face darkened into a deep frown. "I just can't believe Shego would fold on you like that-"

"Betty," Kim cut off the woman's tirade. "Don't blame Shego. I understand what she did. And I think it hurt her as much as it hurt me... maybe even more. If she walked in through that door," she pointed at the office's security door, "and asked for me to come back, I'd be in her arms again in a heartbeat. I've risked everything to be hers, and so has she."

"Has she? Really? With her reputation in the Villain community, she could sell any story about why she was dating you! But for those of us who live in the light, even just a rumour of a smear can tarnish us, and make us one of the bad guys!"

"We've all got damage to deal with. Shego doesn't trust anyone. She only thinks the worst of people. She'll think the Villains won't be any safer for her than it would be for me. The next time you guys bag Drakken, I'll bet you won't see her." Kim sighed. "I know you won't say 'I told you so', but I jumped into this thing with both eyes open."

"Kim," Betty sighed in frustration. "Fine. Just lay low. Wade will continue to be our liaison with Team Possible." She hesitated before continuing. "How is everything else?" Kim gave a humourless laugh.

"I've just been handed a non-suspension by the PTA. I've been kicked off the cheer squad, and everyone's saying whatever they want about me and too me. My parents are holed up at home because they can't go to work. The only good thing seems that the tweebs haven't been pests."

Betty rubbed at her eye. She paused, looking into Kim's deep green eyes before looking away and fiddling with the jacket hanging on the seat Kim was in.

"Try to get some rest, Kim. I've posted a few GJ officers outside your home. You should be safe for now. I hope the Villains won't move too quickly." Kim stood, then impulsively drew the taller woman into a tight embrace.

"Thanks Betty," she said, drawing back to look the brunette int he eye. "You've always looked out for me. I'm sorry things turned out this way." Betty had a slight blush on her cheeks.

"Me too," she murmured. "And you're right. I'm going to have a ton of things to take care of now."

"I'll find my way back home. Thanks again, Betty." With that, Kim walked to the security door, drew it open and walked out, leaving a slightly flustered woman behind in the office. As Kim stepped out, the tall, dark haired girl moved to block her.

"Possible," Lily growled. "Sparring room, now!" Kim looked at the hard glint in the younger girl's eye. Had it changed colour?

"Lily, what-"

"C'mon!" The taller girl seized Kim's arm and pulling visciously.

_What's going on? Why's Lily so upset?_

Kim thought that perhaps if she followed along she would finally get to the bottom of Lily's near hostile attitude toward her. She let the junior Global Justice Agent drag her unceremoniously to the gym, where she practically pushed Kim onto a sparring mat and doffed her bolero jacket in one smooth motion.

"Out!" the girl roared at the other Juniors in the small training room. One look at her face and the five people in the room stumbled in their haste to clear the room. Kim watched wordlessly as they headed for the door. The training room door slammed shut behind the last agent to leave.

"Look, Lily-" Kim was cut off as she ducked under a sizzling roundhouse kick. The taller girl followed up with a triple punch combo and flowed smoothly into a shoulder charge. Kim neatly pushed away the blocks and sidestepped the charge, but gave ground as Lily whipped her foot up in a scorpion sting. Lily tossed her head defiantly.

"What the matter Possible? Can't take a girl three years your junior?" Lily lead with an overhand elbow that shifted into a series of finger strikes. Kim expertly wove around the girl's increasingly wild strikes.

"Do you know how much crap Betty's taking for keeping you on? How much it's going to mess up her career?"

Kim didn't want to retaliate, especially with the girl so emotional. She might accidentally hurt Lily more than necessary.

She ducked under a vicious double kick, sliding sidewise, forcing the taller girl to track her smaller, faster self.

The Junior Global Justice Agent began to breath in sharp gasps out of her mouth. Lily pursued her around the mat for another twenty minutes.

"C'mon Possible! Fight me! Fight back!" the girl screamed at her in frustration. Kim leapt back as Lily dropped into a double leg sweep that rose into a snap kick to the mid-section.

"Lily, what's gotten into you?" Kim faltered, seeing the hot streaming tears fall from the girl's good eye.

"Why? Why did it have to be you?" the voice rose in a wail of defiance. "She's my Aunt! MINE!"

Kim was stunned, and in that split moment, Lily kicked her in the stomach, caught her as she reeled away and threw her, lifting her bodily into the air to come crashing down, her breath knocked out of her.

Lily stood over the gasping hero, panting, sweat mingling with her tears, dripping down from her shock of hair, the bright red bangs plastered to her forehead.

"Why did Aunt Betty have to fall for a stupid, stupid girl like you?" Lily glared down at the gasping hero. "Just stay low and keep your nose clean if you consider Betty a friend. If not, I'll never forgive you!"

Kim eventually regained her breath, but sat on the mat in stunned silence. Betty, fallen for her? What the heck was that girl going on about? And her Aunt! Kim had thought the look was contrived; she assumed that Lily nearly worshipped Betty, like a starstruck teenager. That it was simply hero worship that lead the girl to imitate the head of Global Justice. But now, it turned out that the girl was related... what? Wait a minute... if Betty was her Aunt, then that meant she was... Sheldon's daughter? Kim was pretty sure that Betty only had the one brother, and he was the certified, bonafide card carrying villain, Gemini.

_Oh my gawd!_

Kim dusted herself off, realizing that the girl was not going to return. That was fine with her. Her mind was whirling with the revelations of the day. A couple of the other Juniors that Lily had chased out began to creep sheepishly back in. Kim walked past them in a daze, heading to the Transport Tube Hub. She stood, downcast and silent, waiting for a capsule to take her back home.

- KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP -

As she popped out of the hole that appeared in her back yard, her eyes lit on someone she'd been dying to talk to.

"Ron!" she called out with relieved delight.

The blond boy was in his typical baggy tan cargo pants and burgundy sports jersey. He was hunched over, sitting on the steps of the back patio. As Kim ran up, she could tell something was wrong with the slowness of how he stood, as if bracing himself for something. She threw her arms around him.

"Oh, it's so good to see you! I really need to talk, Ron," she said, pulling back. She then punched him in the arm.

"Hey Kim- OW!" he cried as her fist landed.

"Where have you been? I'm having such a bad time and you just disappear?"

"Uh, yeah, Kim,... about that..." Kim felt a shiver of trepidation crawl up her spine. She ignored it.

"Well, all that matters is that you're here," she continued desperately.

"Kim, I-... I kinda need to-"

"Can we just hang out or something? Have I got a lot to tell you, oh, my, God!" Kim grabbed his arm to lead him into the house.

"Kim, wait... I-"

"I just came back from GJ. The UN's letting me take rescue and humanitarian missions, but they've nixed my villain missions for now. And don't get me started on the President! But while Team Possible's together, we'll be-"

"KIM!" Ron shouted suddenly, wrenching his arm from her grip. She turned as saw tears brimming in his deep brown eyes. "Please, Kim. I... I mean... about Team Possible..."

"Ron..." Kim backed away, fear rising in her in an uncontrolled hurricane spiral of dread.

"Kim... my parents... they told me..." The tears began to overflow, and running down his freckled cheeks.

"Ron, no... please..." Kim shook her head. She felt faint. Her pulse hammered in her head, but didn't, couldn't stop the words that were forcing their way past Ron's sobs.

"We're not even practising Jews... but they said..."

"No, please, Ron,..."

"They said so many stupid, bad-wrong things about you, Kim! I couldn't believe it! They called you a shiksa, and-and-and... we had a huge fight! They wouldn't even let me go to school! And then, Hana..."

"Ron, I need you... I need you right now..." Her vision blurred and she screwed her eyes tight against the scene that was unravelling before her.

"She thought my parents were hurting me and she got all mad, super mad... and she... I had to calm her..."

_No, no, nonononono!_

"They're saying I can't hang around with you anymore..."

Kim put her hands to her ears.

"No!" she screamed. "Don't say anymore, I don't want to hear it, just- just..."

She felt as if the core of her strength was being sapped, being drained away. Ron had been her best friend since pre-Kindergarten. They been together for so many years. They did everything together! Every Christmas and Hanukkah. Every spring break. The only summer they'd not spent together was when Ron's family had insisted that he go to Camp Wannaweep instead of following the Possible household south to Florida. It was a misguided and ultimately damaging attempt to set Ron on the path of a man, separate from Kim. After the trauma he suffered at both the hands of his camp-mates and the claws of the forest critters, Ron refused to be separated from Kim.

Kim's knees gave way and she slumped to the patio boards. Her best friend knelt beside her, wrapping his arms around her as she began to sob.

"W-w-what's going to h-h-happen?" Kim choked out. Ron put a hand on her cheek and raised her face. He put her hands on his, and looked into his earnest, freckled face.

"Nothing, Kim. We'll be apart for a bit. But I'm going to fight this."

"Seriously?"

"Note serious face," he said, pointing. Despite her feelings and turmoil, a giggle fought it's way past the tumult.

"I can't stay much longer," Ron said, as he put his forehead against hers. "I skipped out of being grounded to be here. I'll call you in a couple of days. I'll force a deal. I mean, we've been friends since pre-K! This is just sick and wrong."

"Wrong-sick," Kim agreed, sniffling. They sat with their heads together for a moment longer.

"I-... I gotta go," Ron murmured, but in his brown eyes was a determination that Kim rarely saw.

"Call me?"

"You bet."

With a flash of blue monkey power, Ron jumped into the yard behind the Possible property. Immediately, loud raucous barking resounded.

"Hey, hey! The pants, not the-" There was a tearing sound and Ron appeared on the house's roof in his sports jersey and boxers. He waved sheepishly at Kim, who smothered a teary giggle and waved back. But as he disappeared, her face fell. She sat, cocooned in a pall of silence.

_If I can trust Shego, I can trust Ron._

A familiar beeping chime sounded. Kim stirred, then raised her wrist Kimmunicator and answered the call.

"Wade, I hope you have good news for me," Kim's voice cracked.

"Whoa..." She could see Wade's eyes widen even on the tiny screen of her watch sized Kimmunicator. She miust look horrible. She wiped at her tear streaked, blotchy face. "Uh, maybe this could wait-"

"Just, what is it, Wade?" Kim interrupted irritably.

Well,... if you say so. So, uh... How are you?"

"What do you think? The cheer squad's just kicked me off the team for being a lesbian. I'm non-suspended from school. The UN's suspended my criminal related missions. The President has nixed any missions on US soil. Lily took me to the mat, told me she hated my guts for distracting her aunt."

"Her... aunt?" Wade's voice was carefully neutral. Kim's curiosity was piqued.

"Did you know?"

"I saw the resemblance, but just thought it was just the chaos theory messing with me," he shrugged.

"Well, the worst is," Kim continued, pausing for a moment, "...that Ron said his parents didn't want him hanging around me. He got in trouble for hanging out with me. Said a lot of mean things, called me a shiksa or something..."

"Jeeze, Kim. I'm sorry to hear that." Wade looked off the the side. "Uh... my news is... kinda mixed."

"Aw man!" she groaned. "I'm like the dump girl of the week!" Kim lay silent for a moment, then sighed. "Well, you might as well sitch me."

"Well, I've been following the UN meeting. They're in session as we speak, debating a more permanent resolution on you. You might not hear from Doctor Director for a while, though. She's busy at the UN council. She said that with the number of times you've gone to bat for justice, it was time for justice to go to bat for you. She said to remind you to lay low and let her try to protect you this one time."

Kim's stark face softened a bit.

"Tell her thanks, eh, Wade?"

"I will. Now, on the subject of missions, your web site's taken quite a hit. We're getting major DNS attacks. I'm spiking most of those computers, turning the bots back on their zombie masters. That's going to drop off real quick."

"I-i-i-i'm," Kim drew out, "just going to pretend I know what you're talking about."

"Hacker talk, Kim. Most of your rides have checked in and said they'll take you anywhere you need to go. Your web site mailbox is getting hammered. You're getting about one sympathetic email for every ten hate or spam mails. That's still pretty good, since you're getting a lot of sympathy and emails from people all over the world, Kim."

"Don't worry, Wade, I won't let the man get me down," offered a small, teary, wry smile. "But there's only one person I really want to hear about."

"Sorry, Kim. I haven't been able to track down Shego at all. I thought I'd picked up a trail signature of a stealthed hoverpod over Washington, Dee-Cee, but it was just some fat guy. I'm trying to track down how he got access to a hover pod."

"I guess, with the embargo, I won't have to fight that guy."

"You never know. Betty's pulling out all the stops. She's contacted a large number of security groups and organizations who've benefited from your villain busting, search and rescue agencies, disaster relief... and bringing them before the UN and Interpol. You won't believe which of the Security Council members you've got going to bat for you."

"China. I got the call on the temporary resolution from the President of the Security Council."

"Yeah. I guess they remembered those radioactive rats you fought off from their Yangtze nuclear plant. Or the twenty million people you saved from that flood."

"I guess I have done a lot of stuff over there..." Kim said, dubiously. "This isn't one of those convoluted spy things, do you think?"

"Probably more political than anything. I'll bet they knew the US was going to unilaterally sanction you, so they went the opposite direction. Helps their international image. One last thing, you're getting a lot of requests for interviews."

"Lily's 'recommended' that I lay low, like Betty said."

"Well... I've got another opinion."

"Lay it on me."

"Ok. You heard who outted you?"

"Autumn Gale? Yeah. Hey, is she related to...?"

"Yeah, Summer Gale. Niece, twice removed. Well, ever since she snapped that shot of you, she's been promoted to special KP correspondent. She wants a live interview with you."

"This isn't about revenge is it? I mean, I put her aunt away because she was inadvertently making mutant snowmen. Not to mention screwing with the weather."

"She claims not."

"And let me guess... you want me to take the initiative?"

Wade's smile was all the answer she needed. She thought about it for a moment.

"Sure. It's not as if I've got anything else to do."

"I'll set it up."

"And the interview will be on my turf. They want it so bad, have them do it in a place of my choosing."

I can arrange that," Wade said. He paused for a moment. "I probably don't need to say this, but you'll need to be really on."

"No big. I've always been at my best in a showdown."


	27. Hot 'n Cold Lyrics

**Hot 'n Cold**  
**by Katy Perry, Dr. Luke, Max Martin, Moe Faisal**  
**Performed by Katy Perry**

You change your mind  
Like a girl changes clothes  
Yeah you, PMS  
Like a bitch  
I would know

And you  
Over-think  
Always speak  
Cryptically

I should know  
That you're no good for me

Cause you're hot then you're cold  
You're yes then you're no  
You're in and you're out  
You're up and you're down

You're wrong when it's right  
It's black and it's white  
We fight, we break up  
We kiss, we make up

You!  
You don't really want to stay, no  
You!  
But you don't really want to go-oh

You're hot then you're cold  
You're yes then you're no  
You're in and you're out  
You're up and you're down

We used to be  
Just like twins  
So in sync  
The same energy  
Now's a dead battery

Used to laugh (used to laugh)  
Bout nothing (bout nothing)  
Now your plain (now your plain)  
Boring (boring)

I should know (I should know)  
you're not gonna change (change)

Cause you're hot then you're cold  
You're yes then you're no  
You're in and you're out  
You're up and you're down

You're wrong when it's right  
It's black and it's white  
We fight, we break up  
We kiss, we make up

You!  
You don't really want to stay, no (woah)  
You!  
But you don't really want to go-oh (ohhh)

You're hot then you're cold  
You're yes then you're no (no!)  
You're in and you're out  
You're up and you're down (you're down!)

Someone call the doctor  
Got a case of a love bi-polar  
Stuck on a roller coaster  
Can't get it off this ride

You change your mind  
Like a girl changes clothes

Cause you're hot then you're cold  
You're yes then you're no  
You're in and you're out  
You're up and you're down

You're wrong when it's right (When it's right)  
It's black and it's white  
We fight, we break up  
We kiss, we make up (We make up)

You're hot then you're cold (Ohhhhhhhhhhhh)  
You're yes then you're no  
You're in and you're out (Oh!)  
You're up and you're down (Ohhhhhhhhhhhhh)

You're wrong when it's right  
It's black and it's white (Oh!)  
We fight, we break up  
We kiss, we make up

You!  
You don't really want to stay, no (woah)  
You!  
But you don't really want to go-oh (ohhh)

You're hot then you're cold (Cold)  
You're yes then you're no (No)  
You're in and you're out  
You're up and you're down (Dooooown)


	28. Chapter Fourteen: Hot 'n Cold

A/N:

Kim Possible and related characters © Disney  
Hot 'n Cold © Katy Perry

I own Carmen Marshall, Autumn Gale and Eddie.

Lily is on loan from Love Robin

Song: just copy this tot he end of youtube in your address bar: "watch?v=yY3CehyfUko"

- KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP -

**Hot 'n Cold**  
_by sweetPixiesmile_

She stood in the cool spray of mist, her arms wide, welcoming the morning with an open embrace. The scent of vapourizing water was unique mixture of earthy musk and humid perfume. This was a special place for her, one that she had always sought refuge here, even if for a few hours. She knew it was not a private place, but the tourist season was still weeks away, and the spring deluge was just beginning. Clouds, hanging low, covered the land below.

She stood at the the precipice, performing her libation with practised ease, a slow opening and closing of her arms as she arced her back, just a mere inch from a drop of over two thousand feet.

But even to the casual observer, were there anyone to watch, they would have seen the barely suppressed frenetic energy in her stance. The tautness of her legs, the twist of the wrists, the fierceness of her arc, marred the solar tribute, fraught with tension.

The water that beaded her face camouflaged the tears that ran down her cheeks.

Shego next sat down in that cool, cloud covered cliff as the waters of Angel Falls roared around her, desperate to regain her equilibrium. In lotus position, she attempted to meditate, an anxious search for a stillness that flowed between the gaping, hollow feeling in her chest, the heaviness in her heart, and the practical and cruel commentary running in her head. Try as she might to clear her thoughts and enter an elevated state, images ran rampant accompanied by primal, avataristic emotions.

One line of thought, filled with a gnawing, hollow tension of regret, replayed the emotions that ran through her when she and the person she was trying to shuffle and sift out of her thoughts were together. The light-hearted chuckle tinged with the tiniest bit of unconscious wickedness. The quirk of the lips, tasting of strawberries, alluring as the glittering stars. Those damned earnest eyes, the depth of the richest jade. The sensation of freedom, of flying, an exhilaration of thought so thick she could taste it on her lips.

The other was the ragged, serrated tearing of guilt. The pain that had been written on that open face. The terrified desperation in her voice in an attempt to salvage the relationship that Shego, in her best stone-cold bitch imitation, dismantled. The look of longing and betrayal as she grew smaller and smaller, the hoverpod lifting higher and higher, away from the light, away from joy, away from life itself.

Her whirling thoughts chased themselves around, tigers charging in circles in a reckless race for dominance. She sat, until the morning turned to a grey afternoon and the misted chill filled her super-powered limbs. And yet she still could not find the solace she sought. The tears just wouldn't stop.

She stood with a growl. This was starting to piss her off. What had she expected when she first got into this? Did she think it was going to be all roses? That things would work out? That she wouldn't get hurt? What the fuck happened to her? Was she still soft? Was she never going to be forgiven? Didn't she deserve at least a little happiness?

She began to breathe heavily, willing her anger into being, coaxing it into a raging torrent to drown out the despair.

"Fuck you! I don't owe anyone anything!" she roared into the void. Nothing but her own silent recriminations answered her.

_You led her on. She came to you, but you didn't have to take it that far._

"I did the right thing!" she screamed, raising her fists. Her own scepticism immediately dissected that one.

_You did it to save your own worthless self._

"I've got nothing to prove, nothing to hide!"

_You're always running. Running, running running, you fucking coward._

"I did it for her!"

_You did it for yourself._

"It's just better this way..." Her hands began to glow, uncontrolled plasma swirling and crackling, dancing across her knuckles, shimmering up her arms.

_You just don't learn. Not even after Caitlyn..._

"That's not true... that's NOT TRUE!!!" she creamed into the void. The palpable silence mocked her in return. Sparks flew from her shoulders, corruscating spirals of green energy pooling in her clenched fists.

"It's not true... Caitlyn... she... it wasn't my fault!"

"IT WASN'T ME!" she roared raising her fists in defiance of the heavens, a titanic crackling green corona flaring, roaring and dissipating into the murky grey mist. A sphere of clear air expanded explosively, the haze blasting away from her, the water rushing past her launching into the air in an explosion of super heated steam.

With the sudden release of energy, she felt the anger flow out of her along with the plasma, leaving her drained and distraught. Shego stumbled back from the ledge.

_I... I can't stay here..._

Even if she wanted to, the tourists would soon be swarming the world's tallest waterfall. Where could she go? Drakken, or any of the Villains were out. Forget her old haunts, or her no-work zones. She needed a place that she could crash until she could find a more permanent hideout, where no one would know or care who she was...

Shego suddenly felt the need again... to talk to someone... anyone! She needed to vent to a sympathetic ear, someone who'd just listen and not judge, or recriminate, or tell her their own little version of what's what.

_Dammit..._

Shego leapt off the edge, neatly flipping in an excellent pike into a hoverpod that shimmered into existence and just a quickly faded from view as it sped away from the towering roar of water.

- KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP -

The room was dark and cold. A coating of dust lay on the floor. Area rugs were stacked in a neat pile, rolled and bagged. Furniture was covered with white, tight knit linens, abandoned ghosts of the past. And in the middle of the room, a glistening nineteen fifty-four Fender Stratocaster stood on a guitar stand that sat atop a large square pedestal. The body was a rich creamy yellow. Custom chrome humbuckers glistened under a single bright, tight beam. The pickguard was a magnificently marbled mother of pearl. The custom head, an odd, winged, elongated hexagonal affair, had a frayed and old strap tied to it, falling down the back. The braided strap was worn smooth, thin in some spots. Stains from some unknown liquid darkened the old leather. The braid had obviously seen much repair, knots tied and retied all along it's length.

The ceiling to floor windows that ran the length of the wall were covered with heavy metal security shutters. A pair of large black dufflebags sat beneath a ventilation register that hung open.

Shego had vowed never to return to this room. She'd spent the last seven years trying to destroy every last vestige of her former heroic self. And now, with the Villain world inevitably turning every lair upside down looking for her, there was only one place she could hide.

She looked at the beautifully pristine guitar. No strings on it now, or it would bend the neck, but even through the years of memory she could recall the wonderfully hypnotic tapestry of sound that used to come from the tiny chrome-chambered hearts. It was unmarred by time. Pure, but for a single, dark handprint near the volume and tonal knobs. The stains were black and crusty with age. She stood there, staring. She didn't know how long. Her arms went around, hugging herself, against the cold, against... against the cold. The fucking cold.

Before she realized it, tears were streaming down her face, choked sobs bursting past her defences. She sank to the ground on her knees, crying, crying, crying, _shit_!

She couldn't stop.

The more she tried, the more it hurt, a ripping, tearing laceration that went on and on. But she tried, desperately, stubbornly, viciously.

And the images, god, the memories! Like dragging herself through broken glass. They were so sweet and tender and she fucking threw it away, running like a little pussy instead of fighting for something, maybe the only thing that meant anything in her sad, pathetic, fucked up life.

She wasn't sure how long she cried for. Until her throat was raw, her chest hurt, until she was sprawled in a loose jointed mess on the floor. But eventually, the tears stopped, the trembling ceased.

They left a deep, unfathomable pain, a harsh reminder that tingled along each limb, every extremity.

She heaved herself up, her legs shaking and trembling, and stumbled to the pedestal that the guitar rested on where she plopped herself down heavily. She swiped at her face, the sweat and tears intermingled. She gave a painful, hiccoughing sigh.

"Hey, Kate," she said. "Long time no see." She stretched. Her neck gave a sharp pain and she contracted as if stung.

"Agh, shit!" She rubbed at the crick in her neck. Her long dark hair was stringy and matted with exhaustion. She sat motionless for a while, a long, long while.

"I haven't cried like that since... since... since you died, Kate." The tears decided to reintroduce themselves. She ground at her eyes with the heels of her hands.

"Gawd! I told myself I'd never come back here, but here I am. You know I'm such a moron. I do everything backwards, for all the wrong reasons." She sat, the silence stretching before she stirred again.

"Remember the time that we took the Go Jet for a spin, when it was just out of plastic? I took you to that dyke bar in Upperton. Man that juice joint was just poppin' with honeys. There was me, a baby dyke, revelling in being fresh out. And then, there was straight little you, red faced and hiding behind that case of yours. Our first gig. Both underage, both scared shitless. I was all bravado, and you were all nerves. But then, you peeled open that case, set up the amp, and we just kicked in, and was that ever the shit. After that, I had to beat them off you with a stick!

"I didn't think I'd ever find anyone else like you, Kate. I thought we'd hit the big time, live forever. Beth and Cassie... they were so much older, huh? Don't know what they're doing these days, but shit, we were good. So close to signing the first big contract with your songs.

"I think I've had a girl crush on you ever since that day in the park, ya know? Beth and Cassie could see it. And I'd burn through the groupies like plasma through butter, but nothing ever lasted. I had you, didn't I? Even if you were straight. I would have done anything for you. I did... didn't I? We were the sun and moon; you perky and fresh, me moody and angsty. We were bonded, joined at the hip. And then you told me about your crush... I loved thinking we'd be sisters. And then... and then you died. Everything turned wrong. I was on the run. Can't have a band with just a drummer and bass, so Beth and Cassie moved on. Everything got so fucked up and went to shit.

"The years were okay. You know how it is, you just survive. And just like you said, I've always been a survivor. But I thought I'd never be the same without you. And I wasn't, not for a long time... but then...

"I... I've been seeing this girl... she's great... no, she's fucking perfect. She's everything we used to make fun of in school, ya know? President of gawd knows how many clubs. Cheerleader. Role model. All round hero, not like how I used to be. Remember how I used to gripe about that? I bitched and moaned about all those stupid idiots I'd have to save... she's not like that. She does things for free. She does it because she wants to. A real, honest to God Princess. Miss Perfect.

"There were a thousand and things about her that should have driven me nuts. But all it did was suck me in. And when I was in, the million and more things about her just kept me there. Every time I wanted to dump her candy-teenaged-ass, I just couldn't. And we got really, really deep. It was... awe-inspiring. Just like you, Kate. She made me want to sing again.

"But the word got out; she got outted in the worst possible way, by the press... the fucking press!

"Just like us...

"Even if I went after that punk-bitch that outted her, it'd look even worse. I couldn't just burn the fucking thing into the ground like I did when you died, Kate. So I did what I could. I couldn't save you, but I thought... maybe I... could... save her, somehow. I dunno. Sounds stupid, right? I loved you, and you died. When you died, I knew things wouldn't ever be the same again. And I made sure of that. But now I've cut this girl off... I left her, for the both of us, for the best reasons..." She paused and drew in a shaking, tremulous breath.

"But... but it doesn't... it isn't the same, it doesn't feel the same."

She remembered the look in those dark green eyes, the hurt and the pain, intermingled with trust and sorrow, staring up at her getting smaller and smaller as the hoverpod floated higher and higher.

"I knew... I knew... she was..." she gasped out but the words stuck in her throat.

She couldn't say it. She didn't dare. As if to voice her thought would give it power, put a noose around her neck and stretch her the length of her once proud and solitary soul, tether it to the firmament of weakness, the cracked and debilitating foundation of liability.

_It hurts, oh gawd, it hurts!_

Why was this different? She had loved before. Hadn't she? She'd loved Caitlyn, hadn't she? Like a sister, if not a lover. She'd loved her mother, if not her father, even when they had sold them into slavery, she could at least admit that much. But where she had loved her mother and hated her complacency, she had a belly full of wrath for her... him. _IT_.

She had turned her back on the light, on her loves, using her hate to fuel the split and forge a new and safer path for her ungrateful, bastard brothers. They knew the truth, and allowed her to go.

Because it was too much, it would have been the end if the truth be known.

And it had ended with almost four years of excommunicado.

With her.

With eyes full of sorrow and strife, she looked up at the shining instrument before her, but in her feverish thoughts, she saw... she saw! From the hidden recesses of her mind, red hair flowed on the winds of memory, emerald eyes smiled deep, intoxicating depths.

_I... want... to..._

Light laughter an echoed remembrance, cascading a shower of diamond brilliance upon her tortured soul. The sharp, decisive flow of limbs, dynamic, electric, powerful, graceful.  
_  
I want to see her..._

Shego blinked. She did, she really, really did.

_I have to see her. But how?_

Kim was under surveillance, probably an insane amount because of her tarnished hero status. There would be no safe infil or exfil. No ingress or egress that would not be watched. How could she... Her mind ground to a halt.

The DVD! Of course! She had almost completely forgotten the keepsake that Kim had made for her in her... need for action. But... Shit! She'd left it at the lair, hoping to get some time to fully and securely enjoy its viewing... The lair, much more accessible than Kim's home at this point.

Through the unruly curtain of her dark hair, she smiled, before standing and heading for the open vent.

- KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP -

As she crawled through the second vent of the night, she recalled a conversation they'd had, about vents. Kim had asked her why vents in their lairs were always so large and why they were always so poorly guarded. The answers were practical and obvious, at least after a bit of thought. Hundreds of thousands of secure square footage required massive amounts of air flow. Budget dictated the number of external ventilation points, as well as the amount of security that could be placed on them. Vibration sensors were impossible, as were sound. Video feeds were pretty expensive, unless they were external closed-circuit. Laser grids? Pressure plates? Forget it. You'd get so many false positives that you'd probably just turn them off. Besides, the deeper you got into the lair, the smaller the vents, unless you were in a large room like the main chamber, where villains always liked to set up the command centre.

_So this is what I get for taking a room down a fucking biohazard corridor._

It took thirty minutes for her to worm her way down the rapidly narrowing shaft to her room. She had stopped in the main chamber long enough to hear Drakken whining about pickles. She paused at a register, the vent used for backflow. Because her room had been a biohazard weapons containment facility before she had summarily appropriated it, the backflow register was smack in the middle of the room, instead of on the side. That meant that she could very well drop into a ring of hidden goons and not even know it. She couldn't use an optical eye wire; anyone watching for it would spot it immediately, and her room had no surveillance cameras, something she herself had demanded. She looked down with a specialized spectrum visor. There didn't seem to be any security additions, although her own measures had indicated that someone had entered.

_Well, let's get to it._

She carefully slid a claw under the register's latch and flipped it. As it dropped open, she slipped silently down, landing on the area rug. And froze.

Sitting calmly on her sofa was Eddie. She quickly scanned the rest of the room. He was alone.

"Eddie," she greeted him, ignoring the roaring adrenaline and fear that attempted to circumvent her higher functions.

"Boss. How are ya?"

"Not bad, considering."

"Yeah. Saw the news?"

"Yeah."

Shego noted that his forehead was clear, and his hands were resting lightly in his lap, palms up. He was wearing his uniform, but the cowl was down. He looked older than she remembered for some odd reason.

"Triple S is calling a conclave meeting of all registered Villain members."

"Hope they have decent dip this time."

"At least they have great coffee. Dementor's pushing for a termination order."

"He's had his lederhosen in a bunch for all the times Doctor D got me to steal from him."

"Doctor D was all confused. He said, 'but they're both women!'"

"Eddie..."

"The boys are actually pretty cool about it. Half of 'em think you're stringing the great Kim Possible along, the other half are jealous." Shego stared at the man's tired face. It looked a little more wrinkled, more slack.

"What about you, Eddie? What do you think?" Eddie didn't move. He sat silently for a long while.

"I... I won't bore you, but I had a daughter," he said in a low voice.

"Uh...," Shego's eyebrow rosed. She thought she knew where this was going, but felt compelled to hear this out. Eddie had been her right hand man for almost as long as she'd been employed by Drew. She felt she should let him talk, if it would help him convince himself that letting her go was the right thing.

"She was smart, and beautiful and... well, father's pride, I guess. Long story short, she told us she was a lesbian, that she was in love. We... my wife and I,... weren't understanding or supportive. We wanted to sweep it all under the carpet. It was bad for her at school. Teasing. Fights. Lost a lot of friends. Grades dropped. She..." he stopped for a long, drawn out moment. Shego stayed still. "She made a suicide pact with her girlfriend. She made the attempt. Girlfriend panicked and ran for it. Rachel... we got her to the hospital, but she'd been under for too long. Brain damage."

"Jeezus, Eddie, you never told me," Shego suddenly said.

"Not something to talk about," Eddie shrugged. "Could say the same thing about you and Possible."

"Touché."

"She does better sometimes. Can feed herself. Can use the bathroom. Can carry a conversation." Eddie slid a hand into his suit slowly. Shego tensed, still constantly scanning the room with her senses. He pulled out the DVD. Shego's breath caught in her throat.

"You're after this, right?" Shego hesitated, then nodded. "Ya know, Boss, sometimes you reminded me of my little girl. I used to think maybe she would've turned out like you if we'd handled it different, minus the plasma or crazy kung fu."

"Eddie..."

"I kept it safe, okay? Doctor D ordered us to search your room. I put myself on the detail, assigned it to a few of the old hands, the ones who actually like you. We decided to keep it quiet. Don't know what's on it, but the way you hid it, I'll bet it's important."

Shego nodded in reply. What could she say? She could burn him to cinders or take him down fast and hard... but that was no way to treat a friend.

"Here. Take it." Eddie slid the DVD across the coffee table. Shego bent down to pick it up, but before she straightened, she looked into his tired eyes.

"Eddie... thanks."

"You always looked out for the boys, Boss. You had more to go up against than any of us, and you still made it to Sidekick," Eddie paused, then continued. "If you guys weren't hero and villain, do you think you guys would've worked out?" Shego forced her visage into a study of phlegmatic immobility but Eddie smiled. Whatever he saw, answered his question.

"If we weren't hero and villain, we wouldn't have been in the first place," was what she said. Eddie nodded.

"Take care of yourself, boss."

"You too Eddie. Don't let Drew get all carried away and shit, eh? Tell him not to gorge himself on cocktail weenies, it looks bad. Tell Antoine to keep his left hand up higher. And Boris to keep working his lame leg."

"Got it. You better go, boss. The big meet is in a couple of hours." Shego leaped up, grasped the edges of the vent and slid sinuously back into the vent. She paused, looking down at the man she might have called friend before closing the cover and working her way out. Behind her, she thought she heard Eddie mutter under his breath.

"Good luck."

- KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP -

Back in the Go Tower, in her room, Shego tingled with anticipation. On the way home, she'd appropriated a portable dvd player. Well, fuck, it was a shoddy clumsy BnE, but she at least busted the video cam feed before doing her little smash and grab. The trembling in her fingers, the insistent, purring murmur of her heart brooked no delay. She slid out of the vent and crossed the floor to the linen draped bed. She tore the covering from it with a quick flick of her wrist.

_Well, shit._

She hadn't really expected that her patent black satins would still be there. She strode over to her dufflebags and hauled out two smaller bags. She opened the string-ties and hauled out two forest green, down filled sleeping bags. She unzipped them, exposing their black nylon inside linings and spread them on the bare mattress, the green exterior clamming the lining. She hauled her old television to the end of the bed, and quickly plugged everything in.

Shego cursed as she rummaged for the remote. She stood, closing her eyes, a tide of insistence welling up inside her. Another few minutes of opening and closing long disused drawers yielded the television remote in the bedside table. She lay the player atop the old cathode-ray monitor and turned both devices on. Good, the old remote still worked. She then sat at the end of the bed, closest to the television as the screen flickered to life, displaying the player's manufacturer logo. She could hear the disk spinning up.

The screen faded to black for a moment.

"If you aren't Shego," Kim's voice said from the blackened screen, "you'd better put this back where you found it. If you are Sheeeeeeegooo," the voice over turned sultry as it drew out her name sensually, "this is for you."

It showed a video shot of Kim's room. She could tell from the angle, the camera was probably on the window, between the two southern-most pane. From behind the stairs heading down to the second floor, Kim strolled on. What she wore made Shego's jaw drop, her mouth instantly parching in a spike of pure adrenaline.

Kim had her hair brushed over to one side. It tumbled down her long graceful neck, spilling over a sheer translucent teddy of sea-foam green. Beneath, Shego could see the satin emerald green brassiere, panties, garters and hose set. The teen strolled up and leaned close, placing a light glossy pink lip print on the lens, before leaning back and holding up her hand close to the screen, the thumbs arched and pointing down, the fingers curled above, nails pressed together in the shape of a heart. There, the image froze and faded to grey. An image appeared, overlaying the previous still. It was a picture of the teen's left eye and a bit of hair. The eye stared straight into her, through her. More images overlapped, some she recognized, others she didn't. But each was of Kim. Each was one of those small gifts she had been given.

The lilting corner of her lips. The shimmering red hair. Glimpses of her lingerie or her more revealing clothing. Some were obviously pictures she'd taken of herself. Others were stills from various camera angles of the room during the time Shego had stalked her.

Each was like a bullet to her heart and her lust. Each had her chest burn hotter and hotter, while she could feel her arousal beginning to spiral out of control.

A menu appeared as the images began to loop. The titles that it displayed was "Message", "Fantasies", "Dancing", "Fashion" and finally "Extras." She fumbled with the remote, nearly dropping it in her haste, before skipping the cursor to "Dancing". She wasn't sure she could take "Message" or "Fantasies" just yet.

In a thrill of anticipation and trepidation, Shego watched as the dance routines Kim had learned was spliced and cut to the music she'd used, but from multiple angles. As she watched, she could feel her control slipping. A strange incompatible set of feelings were welling up from inside her, a slow filling of pain that ran in tandem with a burgeoning lust for pleasure.

But when she reached Kim's striptease scenes, she couldn't stand it any longer. She struggled out of her catsuit, throwing her boots across the floor, cursing as she ripped her arms from the sleeves. Within seconds she was gloriously naked and urgently running her fingers through the portions of her torso that was aching for attention.

But as she kneaded and stroked in a growing frenzy, forcing an upward spiralling of ecstasy, it felt as is her insides were being sucked down into a whirlpool of suffering. And she couldn't stop. The greater the pain, the more she craved release. The faster she goaded her lust, the deeper the pain became. It was a weird, disjointed race towards both the heights of the heavens and the lowest depths of hell. She felt as if her mind, her very psyche, was being pulled in two different directions, as if she was being torn apart by the titanic forces of love and lust.

And when Kim's DVD showed her a new dance, she couldn't stand it anymore. Her fingers flew in a dizzying hurry as the pain was crested inside of her. And when she finally broke through the last barrier to her climax, she couldn't tell if it was pain or pleasure that she sobbed out, tears of release or relief. She curled up as the pain and pleasure thrummed through her in a bizarre intermingling of agony and delight.

But as she came down, a terrifying clarity came to her.

It wasn't pain she was feeling. It was a guilt so deep that the misery of it was like a gaping physical wound in her chest.

She knew she eventually couldn't stay away from Kim. She couldn't live without her. She would do anything for that ginger cheerleader. That goody-goody hero.

She loved Kim.

She loved her.

And she'd thrown it away.

The remote struck the television screen. The vacuum tube cracked and the image fizzled, the set shorting in a flare of orange and white sparks. She seized the player in a fit of grief and raised it over her head to smash it on the ground. But for some odd reason she couldn't bring herself to do it.

Shego collapsed onto the sleeping bags, gently placing the player on the ground. She then curled up into a tight ball with a shivering, guttural moan and let the tears come.

- KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP -

Shego woke to the sound of indistinct thumping. She'd finally fallen asleep from sheer emotional exhaustion. Her mouth felt stuffed with cotton, her head was splitting. Her eyes felt dry and gritty, her face blotchy and wrinkled. The longer she lay there, the more defined the sound that woke her became, until she could tell that there were voices that accompanied the thudding pounding.

"Really, Miss Marshall, I don't know what you're talking about! Shego has not been within these walls for the last seven years!" Hego. Shithead.

"Look, Hei Tahn, I know her. And I tell you, I'll stake my life on this. She's here." Shego's eyes snapped wide open.

_What the fuck is she doing here? _

Shego staggered to her feet. She felt as if she'd been used as a punching bag, but made her way, step by step to the door to her room as the pounding resumed.

"Shego! I know you're in there! Open up goddammit!"

She pulled the door open to reveal the neatly coiffured, graceful form of Carmen, her fist still raised for another round of pounding. Behind her was the blue hulking form of Hego, his face a classic picture of confusion and dismay. His face turned pale and he hurried off.

"Carm? I'm trying to lay low here!" The woman gave her a once over, taking in her naked, miserable form. Without another word, she seized her arm and dragged her out of the room and down to the main living area. As they emerged from the residential corridor, Shego wrenched her arm from Carmen's hands.

"What the fuck, you old whore?" The woman ignored her and strode to the television. She hit power and flipped to a channel, then turned back to her.

"You need to shut up, sit down and watch this," Carmen's eyes blazed. Shego was shocked out of her sullen stupor for a moment. Carmen was rarely crass or pushy with her, and when her eyes moved to the screen and heard what was being said, Shego could do nothing but agree.

"This is GNN special correspondent Autumn Gale, and joining me soon for a live exclusive interview is Kim Possible..."


	29. If Tomorrow Never Comes Lyrics

**If Tomorrow Never Comes**  
**by Garth Brooks and Kent Blazy**  
**Performed by Ronig Keating**

Sometimes late at night  
I lie awake and watch her sleeping  
She's lost in peaceful dreams  
So I turn out the lights and lay there in the dark  
And the thought crosses my mind  
If I never wake up in the morning  
Would she ever doubt the way I feel  
About her in my heart

If tomorrow never comes  
Will she know how much I loved her  
Did I try in every way to show her every day  
That she's my only one  
And if my time on earth were through  
And she must face this world without me  
Is the love I gave her in the past  
Gonna be enough to last  
If tomorrow never comes

'Cause I've lost loved ones in my life  
Who never knew how much I loved them  
Now I live with the regret  
That my true feelings for them never were revealed  
So I made a promise to myself  
To say each day how much she means to me  
And avoid that circumstance  
Where there's no second chance to tell her how I feel

If tomorrow never comes  
Will she know how much I loved her  
Did I try in every way to show her every day  
That she's my only one  
And if my time on earth were through  
And she must face this world without me  
Is the love I gave her in the past  
Gonna be enough to last  
If tomorrow never comes

So tell that someone that you love  
Just what you're thinking of  
If tomorrow never comes


	30. Chapter Fifteen: If Tomorrow Never Comes

A/N:

Kim Possible and related characters © Disney

If Tomorrow Never Comes © Ronan Keating

I own Carmen Marshall, Autumn Gale and Eddie.

Lily is on loan from Love Robin.

SONG: Paste this after youtube address "watch?v=B6lw1suaZpo"

- KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP -

**If Tomorow Never Comes**  
_by sweetPixiesmile_

The woman sat on a portable cloth chair that looked slightly uncomfortable. She was outside, which was obvious from the way strands of her teased bangs kept pushing across her high forehead.

"I'm here at the top of the Middleton Television Studios, and we're waiting for Miss Possible to arrive. To recap the last few days, Kim Possible has been seen in the company of a felon who is wanted for many things, least of all are the theft and misappropriation of government property, and the fencing of such items to private interest or criminal elements. She's wanted by the FBI, the NSA and the CIA. She used to be a part of a local family superhero team well known on American soil, Team Go of Go City." Autumn's face was artfully concerned. "Now Kim Possible, on the other hand, is a hero to many people all around the world. She's been instrumental to the foiling of many villains here at home and abroad. However, with her having had a personal relationship with said felon and criminal Shego, it calls into question at the very least, her judgment and at worst, her status as a hero who has access to many levels of secrets that most of us of the public and even journalists are barred from." Autumn looked off camera for a moment.

"I've been told that Kim Possible has just arrived and should be here shortly." She turned back to the camera, her bright blue eyes staring out of millions of screens around America and the world. "And there is the crux of the matter. How long has she known Shego? Is she compromised, a security threat or leak? How many of her alleged victories are true victories, and how many were staged? These are questions we hope to answer, after Miss Possible joins us after the short break."

As the director gave her the thumbs up sign and held up two fingers, Kim could see the woman shuffle through a number of cards that she cleverly hid under a flap of her skirt. The cosmetician applied some anti-gloss powder and quickly touched up her naturally coloured make-up, tsking at some imagined mistakes and darkening the tint.

"It'll make you look more natural on HD," the woman said offhandedly when Kim raised her eyebrow. Keeping up with Bonnie meant that "old tin teeth" had to learn cosmetics and learn it well. Another person teased her hair, smoothing out the fly-aways. Kim closed her eyes. This was it. It was make or break.

"Hair up or down?"

"Down. It's my look." The man nodded, his large wide stubbled head holding still as he finished straightening her red-orange hair.

A man with a ball cap ran up.

"Ninety!" he said. The two immediately stopped and stepped back as the man gestured Kim toward where Autumn was seated. Kim stood and hurried over as a sound tech came alongside her, pinning a microphone to the lapel of a dark black vest that she wore over a periwinkle blue sports zip-up and dark blue pencil jeans. On the back of her vest was a large decal of furled pairs of feathered wings.

The two chairs were situated on top of a television station. This was the very spot that Kim had deactivated the weather machine that Autumn's aunt, Summer Gale, had used in a bid for more air time; a co-anchor position at the station.

Kim sat down in the chair as she placed her mission backpack on the ground by her feet. She glanced about. Ball cap set up the mobile camera, a funny switch inlaid on his vest and a long pole from which a grey fuzzy caterpillar dangled from. Behind the cameraman and the secondary, stationary camera, the hair dresser and cosmetician sat on the ground.

"Kim?" She turned to see Autumn holding out her hand. She shook it. The woman had a good, firm grip. Kim looked defiantly into her bright blue eyes.

"We've got a short time frame. I'm going to ask you some questions as per producer instructions and in agreement with your guy."

"You mean Wade?"

"Yes. Just try to answer honestly and whatever you want to say will come right through. And I want to say, I am not in this because of my Aunt, yeah? I'm a reporter, first and foremost."

"I understand."

"Twenty!" The director called out.

"Just look at me as we talk, and not the camera."

"I've done it before."

"Alright then."

Autumn gave Kim a reassuring smile. Kim, on the other hand, was nervous. She was very aware how this could go wrong. She was much more comfortable with something to block, punch or kick. Those were simple things that could be quantified and assessed in a blink of an eye and taken care of with a precise strike or tool. This would be infinitely harder.

Two large men stood quietly in the back, their work finished during the set up of the back-lit lights. The top of the building was incredibly light, everything nearly white.

The director held his hand to an earpiece, then held up his hand, his fingers splayed. The camera man hunched down behind camera, adjusting the machine. He counted down, lowering a finger for each second until one finger was left and he pointed directly at them. Kim licked her lips.

_Showtime._

Thousands of miles away, Shego stared in shock, her nudity, her surroundings, all forgotten as she stared at the image of the redhead on the screen.

"And now, Special Correspondent Autumn Gale and Kim Possible," came the voice over. Carmen stared at the barren helplessness on her visage, before gently taking her by the fingers and leading her to the dark brown couch. She wrapped a throw around the dazed woman and, pressing lightly on those lovely green shoulders, guided her to sit.

"Hi, and welcome back. I am Autumn Gale, Global News Network's Kim Possible Special Correspondent. Many of you may have been familiar with that name before the last couple of days. Kim is an internationally renown hero. She's been involved in many high profile rescues and disaster relief efforts, as well as several well publicized villain take downs." The sleek professionalism of the woman seemed somewhat ominous. Shego shuddered as the woman who had caused them so much grief turned her immaculately bleached teeth towards Kim. Kim seemed... nervous. She could see it in the slight compression of those plump, luscious, strawberry glossed- she blinked to contain the thoughts and instinctual burst of desire.

"Kim, thank you for joining us."

"I'm not sure if I should thank you Autumn, but I'll try to make the most of this opportunity." Shego blinked again, but Autumn didn't bat an eye.

"Well, when you're an internationally renown hero who takes on security threats, and you're seen with an equally infamous felon, that's important news." To her credit, Kim did not narrow her eyes. Instead she smiled congenially.

"I'm gratified that you accepted my invitation to this venue."

"Yes, Middleton Television Station is an excellent spot and one of our affiliates."

"Did you know that a couple of years ago, I stopped an army of mutant snowmen here?" It was Autumn who narrowed her eyes suspiciously.

"I believe it was during a plot of my estranged Aunt in a bid for more air time." Autumn was clearly losing control of the interview. The director motioned to her furiously. Something was wrong with the equipment.

"She'd bought a used weather machine and picked up water from a well known toxic dump, Lake Wannaweep."

"And you earned the key to Middleton for that particular caper, I believe. But back to the issue at hand. Kim, I'm sure the world is wondering: what were you thinking?"

"You mean me and Shego?"

"Yes, Shego, a criminal wanted by over forty nations and the top wanted lists of twelve."

"Well, you have to admit," Kim's smirk was positively surreal as she leaned forward confidentially, "she's really hot." Carmen nearly snickered, but swallowed her hilarity when she saw Shego flinch.

"So this was just an error in judgment? Not a plot to turn you or to destroy your credibility? Because that's pretty much in question right now."

"I think what's in question is why you'd snap a picture of me and my girlfriend."

"A hero has responsibilities to the public as well as themselves. And when a person who has security clearance to the CIA, the FBI, the NSA, every single branch of the armed forces is seen with a criminal, this is a very grave concern. I mean, really Kim, I'm sure many people in the world are shaking their head and wondering what you were thinking."

"I was thinking that I was having a pretty good time with my girlfriend." Autumn could see the lines being drawn. She glanced at the director who was speaking into his headset, gesticulating wildly. No help there. She needed a different tack. Shego sat at the edge of her seat as the camera panned close to the red-head.

"The United Nations have prohibited you accepting security missions, as has Interpol. The President has announced a complete embargo on US soil. We are all wondering this: are you in league with Shego?"

"I'm not sure if being in love is being in league," Kim replied matter of factly.

"So it's your contention that this was not a scheme of the villain world to corrupt you or turn you in any way?"

"Have you ever been in love?"

"That's not an answer, Kim-"

"But it is, Autumn. Have you ever been in love?"

"Kim, what,... I mean, don't you regret that impetuousness, or decision?" Autumn said, taken back by Kim's sudden and fierce determination. Shego shivered at the sound of her voice. As the teen spoke, she looked directly into the camera.

"It's wonderful, isn't it? And terrifying at the same time. It's a like a caged bird's first taste of freedom. It exposes you, and compels you. You lose control, giving it to someone else. It's a surprise invitation to something that cuts away all the walls and armour and lies you've told yourself." Autumn's mouth moved, but no sound is broadcasted. She turned and spoke, her mouth twisting in a snarling threat as the camera angle panned in to Kim's glowing face. Her deep green eyes stared into Shego's soul. "That person might not be perfect. Heck, she may even be a real pain. Suddenly, miraculously, you're not alone anymore, because you've also, somehow, sent her a surprise invitation too. You chose to accept it to cherish it, because it might just mean that you'll be treasured in return. And you suddenly find a soulmate.

"Even if it eats you out and leaves you crying in the darkness, deals a mortal wound that never heals, I think its worth it. To be 'The One' for someone, to have been 'The One'. To have had 'The One.' So what if it hurts, a soul deep wound. To say no to love is to say no to life." The camera pans back as Kim turned to Autumn, who jerked to face the hero, her face strained and uncertain. Kim sees the director throwing up his arms in disgust as the cameraman struggled with the stationary camera, desperately twisting the knobs and dials but to no effect. The reporter's blue eyes darted off screen several times.

"So, no. I don't regret it. I will never regret it. Shego will be my first, my only, my one true love."

"I know some people might think it's pathetic, or stupid... and I don't think I ever will love anyone else like I love Shego. I wouldn't want to compare, because, for me, she's 'The One.'"

"I love her." Suddenly, a familiar chime sounded. Kim lifted her wrist.

"What's the sitch?"

"A busload of orphans are missing in the Suez and the orphanage is asking for help in locating them. You have your pack?"

"Right, I'm on it. Ride?"

"In thirty. Ready to roll?"

"You bet. And you so rock, Wade!" Kim smirked, turning to Autumn as she switched off her Kimmunicator and reached down for the mission pack. "Sorry, but I gotta split."

"Wait, Kim, you still have thirty minutes, right...?" Autumn blinks at the return of her microphone power, her voice echoing in her earpiece.

"Nuh-uh," came a muffled reply as Kim donned a black helmet she pulled out.

Carmen stared open mouthed at the screen as Kim disappeared off screen, leaving the wireless microphone on the chair and disappearing off screen. Accompanying a sudden high-pitched whine, Autumn's chair suddenly tilts back as a vicious gust of wind nearly blows her over. The camera swerved to see a figure disappearing into the depths of a hovering fighter jet, which rotated as the door closed. The turbines whined louder, and as the plane lifted away, fire belched from its engines and a deafening roar blared out of the television. The video feed suddenly cut out and the screen displays a technical difficulties message. Carmen turned in time to see the tears and naked terror on Shego's face before the comet powered villainess bolted, vaulting the couch and sprinting down the corridor to her room, trailing convulsive sobs behind her. As the comforter fell to the ground, the sharp and sudden door slam could be heard.

"Carmen..." Carmen turned at the voice. Standing in the doorway to the elevator corridor, was a wide eyed Mego. "Was that... Shego?" he asked.

"Yep." Mego stood still, his face full of confusion.

"Was she... naked?"

"Yep."

"What the hell was that about?"

"I think," Carmen smiled sadly, "that your sister is finally in love."


	31. Weapon of Choice Lyrics

**Weapon of Choice**  
**by Peter Hayes and Robert Levon Been**  
**Performed by Black Rebel Motorcycle Club**

I've got to speak, and you want to listen up,  
But there's no time to feast your eyes,  
You want it all, but the world won't give it up,  
Up to the edge, a star will rise.

What is your weapon of choice?  
What's your weapon of choice?  
There is a weapon to free us all.  
What is your weapon of choice?  
What's your weapon of choice?  
There is a weapon to free us all.

I won't waste it, I won't waste it, I won't waste my love on a nation!  
I won't waste it, I won't waste it, I won't waste my love on a nation!

Everyone's got their own split factions,  
Every pawn will pay its price,  
I've been taken out in all directions,  
Let's see you threaten the afterlife.

What is your weapon of choice?  
What's your weapon of choice?  
Who is the weapon to free us all.  
What is your weapon of choice?  
What's your weapon of choice?  
There is a weapon to free us all.

I won't waste it, I won't waste it, I won't waste my love on a nation!  
I won't waste it, I won't waste it, I won't waste my love on a nation!

It's too hard to stand aside.  
Here's the love to stop your heart.

I won't waste it, I won't waste it, I won't waste my love on a nation!  
I won't waste it, I won't waste it, I won't waste my love on a nation!  
I won't waste it, I won't waste it, I won't waste my love on a nation!  
I won't waste it, I won't waste it, I won't waste my love on a nation!


	32. Chapter Sixteen: Weapon of Choice

**A/N:**

**Kim Possible and all related characters **** Disney**

**Weapon of Choice ****© Black Rebel Motorcycle Club**

**I own Carmen Marshall, Autumn Gale and Eddie.**

**Lily is on loan from Love Robin.**

**Song: Paste this after the youtube address "**/watch?v=94c7fdAxTas"

**- KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - **

**Weapon of Choice**  
_by sweetPixiesmile_

Ann's heart was breaking.

Kim sat at the kitchen table, staring out of the windows that surrounded it, the late afternoon sun glaring down at the red head, scouring her with its light. She gazed out, her face untroubled. Without affect. Without emotion. Her face, slack with exhaustion. Her deep green eyes, dark, dull smudges. Kim was tired. Not physically tired. Kim was a doer, not a thinker, or even a feeler. She was tired of staying hidden, staying at home, with nothing to do but think, think, think, think. She felt empty. Empty of tears, full of pain.

She stared through the motley gathering outside. Cordons of picketers with their signs and slogans. Crowds of media hounds that surrounded the Possible residence. The police cruisers that sat nearby, the officers watching the crowd closely. Two men in Global Justice blue jumpsuits, alert and scanning the street. Two unmarked vans parked at the curb far from the house.

Already, Middleton General and the Middleton Space Centre had contracted private security firms to handle the furor at their facilities. Given the importance and standing of both of Kim's parents, neither organization could afford delays of unforeseeable duration.

Luckily, there was no sidewalk on their side of the road; their property line extended right to the curb, forcing the unwanted visitors to stand across the street. Ann looked at her daughter, the hero with the clipped wings.

Since the news broke, the Parent Teacher Association had met in a suspicious closed door session. It had decided to ask Kim to refrain from going to school while the board took its time formulating its safety protocol.

Ann still seethed at the predatory gleam in Louisa Rockwaller's eye when she had paid the Possible household her politically motivated "personal visit" in order to convey the "regrettable decision" made by the school administration in order to placate the woman and her cronies. Ann was hard put to keep her promise to James about putting crime behind her. She would have loved nothing more than to exact a long and debilitating revenge on the Rockwallers, on the media. Even the protesters, strangers who knew next to nothing about her amazing and talented daughter, who held to their inhumane convictions as more important than people. While not strictly religious herself, Ann had to admit that there were things that simply defied conventional structures and strictures of science. But to assume that any empathetic deity would prize dogma over compassion... seemed more akin to evil than good. Kim had taken it in stride, noting that it was nothing that she didn't expect.

The school committees that Kim had headed were in shambles; many of the students had sent hate email to her web site, blaming her for the chaos that was her graduating year. The Middleton Cheer Squad was dropping in its National Cheer Association standings. Bonnie's routines ignored the flexibility and strengths of each individual cheer leader and favoured asceticism over safety; already, two first string girls had been sidelined with season ending injuries.

Kim tried to keep things together through organizing group chat sessions, telephone conference calls and mass text messages. Most members of committees were starting to recognize just how lazy they had become. Some blamed Kim for hogging the spotlight. The more honest students recognized the advantage they had taken of the teen hero, and resolved to become better people. But even these noticed the girl's dampened joie to vivre. There was a sparkle, an intrinsic attraction about the girl that had seemed to have fled before the media and political assault. Her movements were not less precise or less powerful. But they lacked snap, pep. They were stiff, memories of a brighter yesterday.

Wade was kept busy fending off denial of service attacks made by hackers and raiders. They were using hordes of "zombies", computers under their control, attempting to overload the web site portal by making deliberately malformed data. Declaring themselves as the de facto judges, juries and executioners of the media crucified girl, thousands of these "zombied" computers staged a mad rush of electronic requests in an attempt to overload the Kim Possible web site's service. Every single computer that staged an attack was spiked and capped; the real owners would turn on their computers to find a detailed explanation of their involvement in the attacks, and who exactly had taken control of their computer, including names, addresses, telephone numbers, cell phone numbers, names of friends and contact numbers for those friends. Hackers around the world would eventually call this The Reaping.

Wade was determined to keep open in case an emergency cropped up that needed Kim's skills and expertise. In many requests, lives were at stake and time was of the essence, and it gave Kim something to do, something to occupy her.

Requests from American locations were nil.

A few religiously controlled governments had announced statements that they would no longer request or allow Kim's services within their jurisdictions, even though she had saved the governments untold millions, not to mention countless lives. Malaysia. India. The Middle-East. A few African nations. The Vatican. They would not associate with a deviant with a perverse lifestyle.

In contrast she received more and more requests from Europe and Asia, including Italy. These countries announced that Kim's sexual preference neither impacted her desire to help, or the skills that she possessed. They would welcome the red-headed hero with open arms, and perhaps a friendly party. China, an odd supporter in her corner, had mixed feelings about her until Kim saved one third of the population when an eight point two earthquake hit an area with a nuclear power plant on the shore of the Yangtze River in the middle of flood season. The official Communist Party stance was one of indifference, but unlike the jaded city dwellers, the regular populace had long and grateful memories. Many who had moved to China's burgeoning metropolises still had family in the rural towns.

Kim was spending a lot of time abroad as a result. With no school or her extracurricular activities to occupy her, she took every mission Wade sent her way with a desperation that worried the Middleton neurosurgeon. During her long transit flights, she sat quietly, her face pensive, her eyes glazed in remembrance.

Even then, Kim could not always find relief.

Every single one of her "rides" had heard some version of "the story." There was nowhere that she could go to escape, no where she could run from her publicized private life. She was experiencing the dark side of popularity, the vorpal double edge of fame. They all knew that the love of her young life had left her. Had left her bereft of any comfort, any warmth, any power. That she was running on sheer will to live, the drive, the instinct to never give up, never surrender. It reminded her of something she'd heard, a quote about fighting the good fight. Something about the nobility of a cause being exponentially proportional to the level of its futility.

Not that there had been a shortage of offers to distract the suffering hero.

When she'd stopped one of the new crop of villains from transmuting the Eiffel Tower into a huge proboscis, there had been an impromptu party thrown for her. Several offers, and no few proposals had been made from teens of her age, fabulously gorgeous models, and rich and assertive women older than her own mother. Stunned and somewhat flattered, Kim had turned down all offers, even one by nicely built triplets.

It was too close, too near her heartbreak. And Kim had never had a good opinion of one night stands; like any goody-goody, she had wondered what it would be like to explorer that style of sexuality, but being honest with herself was more important. If she tried to find solace in that way, she felt as if she was letting whatever was bothering her to win. That she had needed to escape to something so unlike her, it smacked of personal weakness, something Kim was not. And that was something that she simply couldn't do. She still had her self-respect, and she wasn't going to let the fact that her heart had been torn from her in a forcible and public manner and smeared all over the media world-wide, get to her. Romance and love was what she was after. Although she'd hankered after a few people due to her rivalry with Bonnie, in retrospect, Kim had only ever swooned after two people. The first one had been an infatuation fuelled by curiosity, veiled by mystery and haunted by loneliness. It had ended in abrupt disappointment and without resolution.

And the other was her.

Shego.

She wasn't just anyone.

She was, and would always be "The One."

And so, Kim did as she had always. Each day, she got herself out of bed. Each morning, she ate whatever her mother placed before her, without complaint. She would go to the basement, where the tweebs, bless their mechanical geek genius hearts, had built her a high-tech gym set to work out. She reminded herself, in that tiny room, that she needed to breath in and out, all day long. She told herself that compared to many, she still had it good, and that she could bring that good to others. And she hoped, that one day, she could stop thinking about how she had all the magic and wonder of the world nestled in the depths of her heart, and that it had chosen to turn its back on her and leave her.

So, today, Kim sat at the kitchen table, having a cup of tea. Her eyes gazed sightlessly through the clear paned glass, mired in the memory of love lost. Her mother looked upon her near perfect daughter, her maternal heart yearning for some reprieve for the red-headed hero.

James had been indignant at the media harassment and angered by the actions of the comet-powered woman. In the small private hours in their bed, he muttered to Ann of his dissatisfaction and disappointment at the failure of a relationship that had meant so much to his Kimmie-cub. It wasn't that he didn't respect the woman's decision or that he didn't understand it. It was because of the anguish it caused his little girl. He tried not to walk on eggshells around his little Rocket Booster, tried to bolster the girl's deep spaced spirit with his typical kid gloved witticisms from another era.

Ann, on the other hand, understood where Shego was coming from. She herself had contemplated the same problems and issues that surrounded star-crossed lovers who held membership in competing and antagonistic organizations. It still didn't make it any easier to bear.

Ron had eventually won the battle with his parents, reasoning out what they were doing was both against the Torah and basic human decency, and visited with Monique in tow almost every day, trying to keep things normal and superficial, hoping that Kim would make the turn for the better on their watch, praying that their simple presence was comfort enough for the heartbroken hero.

But they had school, and graduation was quickly approaching.

Ann turned her eyes to three armoured personnel carriers that screeched to a stop outside the house. Several squads of soldiers in full combat gear rushed out, their assault weapons at the ready, and began clearing a space directly before the Possible residence. Protester or media hound, they made no distinction as they shouted and jostled and pushed them aside. They pushed further and further, around the corner. Squads of men moved door to door of all the houses up and down the block, ushering frightened, wide-eyed neighbours down the walk. Soon they too are gone from sight.

Ann felt a shiver of trepidation as a man with a beret, a captain, tapped a marine on the shoulder and lifted a device a female communications officer produced to his lips.

Within minutes, the loud rhythmic sound of helicopter blades roared over the house. The large black matte vehicle landed on the street, settling down, whuffing like some squat mechanical gnat. The doors open and a large man with white hair and stars on his shoulder descended, his hand over his cap. The captain and most of the marines close by saluted with stiff, crisp hands. The woman who descended from the craft behind him... Ann blanched at it. It was a face that Ann had prayed she would never have to see again. A face from her past. They approached the house. They crossed the front lawn, broken slivers of greenish silver left in their wake.

Ann's hands shook as she put her coffee mug down on the counter. She left the kitchen to open the door at the sound of the bell chime.

Kim turned at the sound of her mother clearing her throat.

"Kim?" Ann's voice was husky with an emotion Kim couldn't identify. Something was wrong. Her mother, so self-assured and confident, had her arms wrapped around herself. "Kim, there's some people here to see you."

"I know," Kim replied. She had seen the soldiers setting up and securing the perimeter, just as her sharp eyes had picked out the F-22 Raptors as they roared across the blue expanse, spreading a no fly zone vapour trail in the skies above. She paused for a moment, then stood. "I'll see them."

Kim walked into the living room. Two marines stood at parade rest by the door. A tall wide man stood by the couch, the same one Shego has sat in on their first official date. Even if she had known that it would have been their last, Kim still would have gone.

Gone and dashed her heart to pieces, all over again for that one single night.

And sitting where Shego had sat, where the glowing villainess had shifted nervously under Ann's sharp gaze, was Doctor Director. Kim paused for a moment, taking in the scene.

"Betty," Kim nodded in the one eyed woman's direction, her eyes not leaving the man in the green uniform. Four full rows of campaign ribbons.

"Kim," the head of Global Justice returned. Betty stood and motioned to the hulking man with stars glinting off his shoulders. "This is General Speares. General Speares, may I introduce Kim Possible." Kim stepped forward to take the man's outstretched hand. They were rough and calloused against her own soft fingers.

"Miss Possible."

"Kim, do you know why we're here?"

"Probably for the thing that Wade's been buzzing me all morning for."

"So... you haven't spoken to him?" Betty shared a glance with the General. The man seemed slightly uncomfortable.

"Wade mentioned a dangerous sitch in Washington. I didn't want to talk about it. I cut him off around that point. I was... I'm angry."

"I understand Kim. That's why I'm here. There is a situation in DC that is very serious and very dangerous."

"Uh-huh." Kim was uncharacteristically silent. She was forcing the issue. The General's face was turning red.

"Have you been watching the news?"

"No."

"You don't-" The General began, but Betty cut him off with a gesture. The man clamped his lips tightly together and ground to a halt.

"No. For obvious reasons," Kim glared back at the man, nodding out the window facing the street. The same window her mother had stared out of as Shego had led her to a hoverpod.

"I understand," Betty murmured. "But I'm here to ask for your help, Kim."

"Global Justice? Or the United States of America? The same America that's called me everything from a pervert to a whore, that's ridiculed me? That's called me... labelled me, without trial or jury, a traitor? The same US of A that's ignored me and didn't stand behind me when I needed it? That called me a threat potential? That said my services would no longer be welcome?" Kim's voice rose steadily, just as the General's face flushed darker and darker.

"Kim," Betty's voice was little above a shocked whisper, her face growing paler with each accusation. With an effort, Kim reigned in her anger as she tried to slow her beating heart, her panting breath.

"No... Betty. I know. But... it hasn't been easy the last couple of weeks. The media..." Kim looked away for a moment. "We stopped watching the news."

"Well, there is an extremely serious situation. Washington has been taken hostage."

"Washington... DC? What...?" Kim said after a moment of shocked silence.

"About six hours ago, a man calling himself 'Hellbourne' somehow took over Washington. He captured the most of the Joint Chiefs, plus the President and his cabinet. The military made several assaults, but they've been beaten back with heavy losses. The enemy, on the other hand, seems to have grown larger and more dangerous."

"And now... they can't beat it themselves, and they bring this problem to my door? After nearly calling me a dupe, a tool, even suggesting that I've been aiding and abetting a known criminal?"

"Kim, I'm not going to defend them. I'm not even under their jurisdiction. I'm here because Wade told us you might be mad."

"You think?" Kim feigned shocked surprise. The edge of Betty's mouth twitched.

"I'm here to try to bridge the gap. And really Kim, not all the Administration agrees with the statements made. Most of them see the political bull for what it really is. General Speares here is one of the seniors that argued on your behalf in front the closed Congressional hearing that's been going on." Betty gestured for the General to speak.

"Miss.... Possible," the man took a deep breath. "I don't speak for the... Administration... but I know most of the force feel the same... and I am deeply ashamed of the way you've been treated. That volcano machine you stopped in Nebraska a couple years back? My son was stationed at the nearby base on furlough. You saved his life there." Speares glanced at Betty. "Doctor Director informed us that you may not want to talk to us after the rather unfortunate and ill-advised... official statement." Kim looked away from the military general who's soft brown eyes looked into her own. A few moments later, Kim turned back, her shoulders and stance softening.

"I'm sorry, General. It hasn't been... easy... and that statement..." Kim murmured.

"I understand, Miss Possible. As a father, I'd not want to put my son in the line of fire, even if it was his chosen profession. And I know you're going through a rough patch right now. We wouldn't ask you if it wasn't truly urgent. Your track record is practically impeccable, and we need every edge we can get." The General's aide stepped forward with a map of Washington.

"The National Guard has been called out to evacuate the rest of the city. We've got a perimeter of about ten miles around the area" the General said as his finger circumscribed a circle, indicating the border.

"Hellbourne is utilizing some sort of nanotechnology," Betty continued. "Mister Load was able to isolate a sample. It's the same design philosophy as the nanotick that you retrieved for Professor Akari and prevented Doctor Drakken from acquiring. The programming has been modified, however." Betty drew a small disk-like device from her pocket and laid it on the table. She pressed a smooth round button in the middle. Like an opening flower, disk panels flipping and spiralling open as a central light flickered.

"Here's some footage that was captured by one of the assault teams that was tied into the overwatch network."

"This is footage captured of Second Platoon of the Two-Three, sent in to attempt a rescue mission on a small detachment from Thirteenth Calvary." Speares spoke, his voice tightly controlled. "There was going to be a rendition of the 1812 Overture and the President wanted the honour to be given to a tank division that was being rotated back out of live combat. We'd lost all contact with Fort McNair when Hellbourne struck. The Two-Three was out on manoeuvres when Hellbourne hit. Anyway, they were supporting a detachment of Tenth Armoured. The footage has them just crossing the Frederick Memorial Bridge. Now watch carefully." Betty poked at a glowing button graphic image suspended in mid air and the video began to play.

The flat rectangular image's picture quality was excellent, the colours sharp and clear. The sound of gun fire and shouting was almost continuous, indistinct orders being delivered at break neck pace. The ground was littered with debris and rubble, the normally smooth road gouged with large craters. Large, flat-topped tanks, fired their shells in sequence, the smoke billowing across the line of four tanks on the freeway. The smoke swelled and obscured much of the video.

"Tenth Armoured has engaged the enemy, I repeat, one zero armour has engaged!" The thunderous sound of the armoured division punctuated the recording.

"Still no sign of Sabre! I repeat, no... wait... what the fuck is that?" Out from beside the side of the bridge, just next to the furthest tank, an enormous shadow loomed. Even as the turrets of the two left most tanks turned to face the threat a large metallic something swept down and smashed one of the tanks, flipping it, crashing atop the other. The camera bobbed as the soldier ran, his breath harsh and gasping as soldiers ran forward and crouched. They hoisted tubes onto their shoulders. Five rockets streaked toward the obscured shadow, impacting all along its silhouette. One impacted near the top, briefly pushing away the smoke to reveal...

"Oh god..." was the final captured gasp of the soldier.

Suddenly, a bright blossom of fire flared in the video feed and the scene abruptly turned into static. Betty leaned forward and waved her hand. The video rewound itself to the point just when the smoke had cleared a bit.

There in the billowing smoke, was a tank turret. The bottom of the vehicle, however, seemed to have melded to a humanoid body made up of other vehicles.

"We suspect that Hellbourne is using nanites to somehow turn any and all mechanical devices and vehicles to his ends, to mould them somehow." Kim stared at the two grave faces before her, momentarily speechless.

"But why me? I know my track record is good, but I don't see how I can help."

"The American military does not currently have the capability to combat nanites or nano viruses. We called in a special team that had been training with the centurion project, but the nanites infiltrated their suits. The results weren't pretty." Kim shuddered at the thought of the men and women who had their suits transmute while they still wore them. "Mr. Load has led us to believe that you are in possession of a suit that is capable of resisting the nanobots and their nanovirus."

"My.... battlesuit?"

"That's right, Miss Possible," General Speares smiled grimly. "Mister Load says that your suit is the only one that has a magnetic field repulsor, and although that doesn't really help with stealth, it can hold the airborne nanites at bay."

"But.... what about Team Impossible?" Betty shook her head.

"Too much reliance on machines."

"Then... Team Go?"

"Kim, you know their track record," Betty raised an eyebrow.

"Yeah. When... Shego..." Betty frowned slightly. Even now, Kim caressed the woman's name whenever she said it. "...left the team..."

"They fell apart. Yes."

"Miss Possible, it's looking bad. We've lost contact with a few nearby nuclear bunkers, and this bozo is holding that over our heads right now. He's threatening to launch, although your Mister Load thinks it's a bluff, that he doesn't really have the launch codes yet."

Kim sighed. She sat down and bowed her head. Her country needed her and they had come calling. The country that had turned its back on her. The country that had tossed her aside for political expediency. That was currently investigating her for criminal charges even as they sat. Her mother probably wouldn't have even let them in the door if it wasn't for Betty. And they had asked her to return to the fold, to turn one more trick for them.

She thought about the last two weeks, her listless heart. She knew that evil was greedy. It was cannibalistic. It was ravenous and vicious. She knew, that this Hellbourne, handed any victory, would simply take more and more, until the world would be ground under his heel. And where would that leave Shego?

Kim opened her eyes, and stood. She faced the General with more campaign ribbons than any other military man Kim had encountered before. She faced Doctor Elizabeth Director, a genius in her own right and head of an international crime fighting agency.

"Okay. I'll do it. But let me make this clear." Kim turned first to Betty. "I'm not doing it to fight crime." Next she turned to General Speares. "I'm not doing this for country." Her eyes flashed with more light than Ann had seen in the last two weeks.

"I'm doing this for _her_. So _she _can live in a place where she has the freedom to choose to commit crimes or not. And not under some weirdo's thumb. Got it?" Betty and Speares nodded.

"Alright. Let me get my battlesuit. You can sitch me when I get there." She ran up the stairs, taking to steps at a time and threw open her closet. A hand on the security scanner opened the reinforced door and she quickly changed into the white, shimmering cloth. She paused long enough to get pick up her mission backpack.

When Kim returned to the ground floor, she turned to look at her mother, who was standing by the kitchen door. Betty was speaking quietly to the General and his aide, waiting for her at the front door. She walked over and hugged Ann.

"I'll be back mom."

"Be safe Kimmie," Ann said, staring with piercing blue eyes over her daughter's shoulder at the one eyed woman ushering the general out the door. As if physically touched, Betty turned her head and looked for a long moment at the intense blue gaze with her own unfathomable dark irises before her lips quirked slightly. Kim pulled away from her mother and turned, passing the taller head of Global Justice.

Ann followed, stopping just shy of the head of Global Justice. They stared at each other for several seconds before Ann raised a hand and touched the black patch, drawing a slow line along its reinforced triple stitching and hard shell with her finger tips.

"Does it still hurt?" Betty silently shook her head in reply. Ann's hand hesitated and dropped as she looked past the tanned woman. "Good. That's good. I'm glad."

"Ann, I-" Betty stopped, following the doctor's eyes to the red-headed hero crossing the lawn to the helicopter, one hand holding her long red hair against the downdraught of the chopper blades.

"Liz...just keep Kimmie safe."

"You know I can't, Ann. She's moving beyond the envelope."

"If she dies..."

"All bets are off, I know. I'll try, Ann."

The Middleton neurosurgeon nodded, wrapping her arms around herself against a cold lump of unease that wormed its way inside her. Betty left without another word. Kim paused at the doorway to the helicopter and waved. Ann weakly waved back. The hero disappeared into the helicopter and Betty climbed aboard. She paused, looking back at Ann before shutting the door with a slam. She retreated and shut the door as the helicopter took off, dust and dirt spraying in all directions.

"Be safe, Kimmie," she whispered, watching her daughter fly away into the unknown.

- KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP -

Betty, Kim and General Speares sat quietly, webbed into Global Justice's latest hypersonic hoverpod. The bay was a dull metallic gunmetal grey, with grilled stalls lining the fuselage. Each grill encased an odd webbing that bound them to well padded seating. Much needed, since the assault pod, as Betty named it, seemed to be forever accelerating. The roar of the engines was a strangely vibrating muffled hum that seemed to drown out any other noise; she couldn't imaging how loud it was outside. The bay was windowless and other than the elaborate web cages and protective webbing, nondescript. The speed must be phenomenal; Betty said the trip to the nation's capitol would only take fifty minutes, when the helicopter had landed at a nearby air force strip and they boarded the pod.

The noise left Kim with her own thoughts, her own feelings. She wasn't sure what she could to help, but if Wade was on the case, he would have something in mind by the time they arrived. Kim concentrated on calming exercises that one of her Sifu, her martial arts teacher, had taught her; it seemed to work, as she felt more calm if not confident by the time she felt the pod decelerate, five minutes out from their destination.

The pod landed softly and the co-pilot and navigator came back to help with the odd metallic webbing and to open the cages. Betty moved quickly to open the hatch, with Kim and Speares following close behind, but as she swung open the thick metal door, Kim gasped.

Spread out before her was a scene straight out of a war movie. It was a carefully controlled chaos of uniforms and machinery. Soldiers were everywhere, obeying commands or rushing off to some unknown location. Vehicles were constantly moving, shouted orders obeyed with alacrity. As Kim stepped down from the assault pod, she glanced about. Nearby was a line of helicopters. In the distance, tanks, A1 Abrams could be seen, dug in along the perimeter. The cityscape horizon was filled with columns of black smoke. Wounded soldiers were being driven or carried by their comrades to the triage unit set up by the Medical Corps.

General Speares' face purpled with anger when he first saw the large amounts of smoke and fire coming from the city. He swiftly lead them past saluting uniforms toward a system of large tents that sat near a camouflaged satellite dish. Two marines guarding the entrance of the tent flap snapped to attention as they passed.

"What the hell is going on, Colonel Trane?" he bellowed. Another man in combat fatigues turned from a table that displayed a tactical map.

"War, Speares." The man had a pepper grey buzzcut and stood a half foot taller than Speares. The Colonel straightened as Speares came up, toe-to-toe with the taller man. Kim had a sudden impression that the shorter man had more solidity, like a tall, deep rooted tree, and the other, fragile stone.

"You ordered another assault?"

"We thought we detected a thinning of the nanocloud-"

"And had your ass handed back to you! What was the damage this time?" At this, Trane shifted his feet uncomfortably.

"Forty-one percent," the man ground out, setting his jaw for a tongue lashing. Speares turned away for a moment.

"We'll deal with this later-" Speares stopped as the tent flap was thrown open to admit a short, puffing, chubby black boy in a dark blue t-shirt and black jeans.

"Wade!" Kim cried in delight and rushed over to throw her arms around her friend. Wade pushed past her, his wide dark eyes on another person.

"Is that the XGJ-four-two-seven-five?" he gasped out as he bent over, holding his aching side. "The one that uses the experimental collider power core?" Betty twitched.

"No comment," she said, her eye slowly taking in the faces of the people in the tent.

"But it's still highly experimental, I heard that it still experiences power fluc-"

"Perhaps," Betty stressed the word, "you might like a look. After we deal with the situation?"

"Oh! Uh..." Wade's face pinked with sheepish embarrassment. "Uh, yeah. Hi Kim."

"Wade, are you missing an eyebrow?" she asked, seeing faint scorch marks on his round face.

"Oh, just a bit careless. I'll be fine," he shrugged in reply.

"Well, if you say so. Sitch us, Wade." The dark boy pulled out a dark, multi-sectioned disk from his backpack as he moved to a table laden with maps. He paused, looking at the technicians who sat there, their eyes on the General. Speares gave a curt nod and they immediately cleared a space. The boy genius placed the six inch disk down and pressed a slightly darker section. After a brief hum, the ridge around a large clear crystal began to glow.

"It's just like we thought," Wade started as the glow grew brighter. "Hellbourne has unleashed some sort of nanite cloud. It's an evolved version of Drakken's nanite design, the one he took from Professor Akari, but with much better software and command structure." As he spoke a mist of swirling light appeared in the air above the disk, before coalescing into a three dimensional image.

"That looks nothing like the thing that almost gave me a make-over," Kim commented, looking intently at the odd spray like picture. "That thing looked more a tick with a bomb on top. This looks more like a psycho sun star or something."

"Builders? Antenna," Betty spoke, pointing as some odd shaped tentacle ends.

"This one is. There's a couple of different models but this is the workhorse. Instead of having explosive capacity, it's been retrofitted to break down any metallic substance and convert it. I captured and isolated a few, using a miniature suspension field generator, similar to Kim's Magnetic Repulsor Field. A careful download and dissection, gave me a lot to go on. It follows a specific set of instructions: connect, convert, conceive."

"Connect?" Speares asked. He rubbed his jaw in consideration. "You mean to a network of some sort?"

"Those nanites that are airborne can convert any and all metals it comes into contact with into whatever it desires, but those that aren't actively involved in constructions, converts all their tentacles into antenna and use most of their power to maintain trillions of small area networks or act as signal boosters. And this looks like it might be our in." The nanite image receded as a map of Washington emerged, zooming further and further until it showed most of the National Mall, as well as the winding curve of the river. The colours changed from green and grey to an odd mottling of colours. "This is a live feed. By tracing the magnetic wave strength of the nanites, we can determine their density and track their movement."

"Mister Load," Betty said. "Perhaps we might retain some of your services in shoring up our satellite security?"

"Ah... yeah," Wade laughed nervously. "Anyway, using Global Justice's latest satellites and tweaking the firmware a bit, I've been able to trace low level microwave signals through the nanite web. Now watch." Like a weather display, the rainbow colours rippled when a pulse of white permeated the cloud like sheet lighting, originating near a famous and familiar building. After a few moments, another pulse appeared and the entire formation convulsed, changing directions and redistributing itself.

"A master signal?" Betty raises an eyebrow. "And from the Lincoln Memorial."

"Yep. We may be able to neutralize the entire nanocloud with a shutdown signal, but we need to get to the centre first."

"How large is the cloud right now?"

"The outside edge is about three miles out of the Lincoln Memorial."

"We've tried missiles, high level artillery, attack drones and other ordinance, but the nanites convert the metal before it even gets close." This was the first time Colonel Trane had spoken up after Speares' dressing down.

"That's where Kim comes in." The image zoomed into a sanitation access station, then followed a wire rame path that ended near the memorial. "She can infiltrate the area using the sewer tunnels beneath the memorial. And because it's in reinforced concrete, any nanite there wouldn't have the power to get a signal out of the tunnels until it's too late." Wade turned to Kim. "I'll have to load a couple of upgrades and security measures to your suit before you head in. You'll need to have the shield up all the time, but to have it like the spherical shield you've had in the past would totally drain your batteries. A low powered shield that just covers your body should be enough to keep the nanites from corrupting the battlesuit."

"So... what am I looking for when I get there?"

"I assume that Hellbourne will hold the transmission device himself, or at least have it at hand. He's been monologuing to every newsfeed or webfeed possible. Don't call me on your Kimmunicator when you hit the Memorial, he's probably monitoring the entire spectrum for signals."

"Can't I just shut it down?"

"Just because these nanites don't have explosive capabilities doesn't mean they're dangerous," Wade said, tapping his missing eyebrow.

"Right."

"Is there anything we can do?" the general asked.

"Short of detonating a nuclear warhead above Washington..."

"An EMP?" Speares raised and eyebrow at that.

"Let's leave that as a last resort," Betty murmured, "even if most of the essential servers in the area are shielded."

"We can standby to serve as distractions if need be," Trane suggested. "Do you have an ETA for Miss Possible to get to her target location?"

"Three miles, stealthing in the sewers... Wade bring up the path again?" Wade slid his finger through a small square under the display, then dragged his finger left. The path rewound as he dragged his finger. When the display showed the sanitation access station, he removed his finger and poked the square. The path played over one more time, showing stairs, gates, crosswalks and the pipes lining the accessway.

"An hour, tops," she said after a moment of thought.

"It'll take me about the same to load and test the new firmware on Kim's suit," Wade added.

"We should set up a feint, to see if we can distract Hellbourne. Miss Possible, how are you going to get to the infil point?"

"I think I'll take the water. The nanites shouldn't be able to replicate as easily there, right?"

"They're pretty much blind and dumb; they can sniff out metals. But outside the three mile perimeter, they're completely useless. Water should cover any trace of you until you get to the station. When you get to the target, we'll be waiting." Wade pulled out a small plastic black box with a small LED light and a blue button. "Slap this on the communications console, press the button and I'll do the rest."

"What is this? Some sort of hacking device? " Kim picked up the box, turning it over. It fit in the palm of her hand.

"It'll automatically connect to the best satellite network and let me start an immediate hack."

"How long will it take for you troops to be ready?" Betty asked, turning to Speares.

"We're getting resupplied right now, about sixty minutes," Trane answered.

"Good. Does everyone know what they need to do then?" Betty looked around the table. The uniformed men nodded, grim with purpose. Kim and Wade also nodded. "Then let's hop to it gentlemen, Kim. We'll roll out in ninety."

Speares immediately turned to his aide. Trane gathered himself and stepped close, listening to the general rattle out a string of orders, nodding his understanding. Betty followed Kim as Wade took her out of the command tent. Outside, formations and lines of men were still rushing about. Hummers slewed past, soldiers jingling past in double time. A medic hummer, laden with men and stretchers drove by; Kim's heart lurched, seeing the injuries. They arrived at a small circular tent with a large satellite dish and generator. Inside, Wade led Kim to a cot that was set up behind a privacy screen. On a chair was a set of fatigues and a cotton tank.

"Gonna need you to take off your 'suit Kim," Wade called out from the other side of the screen. Betty stood at the entrance, her back to Kim. "If there's a bug, I don't want you in the suit."

"I hear you," she said as she touched the collar. She peeled out of the suit, shivering at the cool spring air. The suit was tight, but that wasn't the reason she wore no underclothing. The suit flowed and moved by itself, either to pad a blow, cover a tear or to tighten around bunched muscles, adding extra support. She quickly pulled on the cool, rough cotton.

She turned around with the battlesuit in her hands.

"Um,... Betty?" she said to the back of the rigid woman, who gave a start. The woman stepped out of the way.

"I'll leave you to it then," the woman muttered. Kim blinked. Did she just notice a blush on the woman who was hurrying out of the tent?

"Just put it on the stand there, Kim," Wade said, still fiddling with some wires.

"So anything new?" she asked as she arranged the battle suit on the rack.

"Yep. I'm putting in a a few specially shielded nanties along with a new set of instructions; hopefully that will protect you if the nanites get through your repulsor field, somehow," the boy said as he hooked up some additional wires to the rack. He flipped on a switch and the suit began to glow and fill out. "It'll have a protective AI. Takes more than a simple program to protect the suit, especially after what Dementor tried to do way back in September."

Kim sat down beside her friend as he began typing away at a laptop on a small fold out table beside the rack. The suit's blue trim blinked twice, then began to shimmer. He turned to Kim who stared at the electric blue sparkles.

"Look Kim. This is serious stuff, this time. No heroics, okay? You get in, you take out the communications console, you protect the black box. Five minutes, that's all I need."

"Don't worry Wade. I won't get lost," she smiled.

But the look on Wade's face haunted her.

- KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP -

Kim took a deep gasping breath as she rose from the water. Without pause, she ran to a small squarish concrete building with a single door, the hood of her white suit flowing back into her collar. She kicked in the metal door without pause, the hinges shrieking. She paused, listening to the hollow, eerie silence. She turned to look back down at the water front and waved. A hand rose from the water, waving once, before the stealthed dive team retreated with their silent two man submersible.

Kim turned and took the stairs down into the sewers of Washington DC.

The trek to the memorial was remarkably uneventful, and other than the smell, the weird lumpy things in the brackish, stinking water, the odd shadows and scuttling insects, she encountered nothing along the way. Her softly glowing battlesuit gave her enough light, and Wade's wireframe map that she had memorized the second time through was accurate.

And now she was really worried. Well, okay, it was kind of like all the times she snuck up on Drakken. Kim felt that most of her villains wanted to be caught in the act; how else would they get publicity? But then, Wade was simply amazing; she was glad that she had befriended the portly black boy and his head full of outlandish ideas. She checked her watch. She was going to be twenty minutes early.

After a last turn, she entered a small service tunnel that snaked along for about three hundred yards. It ended abruptly at the bottom of a short metal ladder. Above was a service panel, a large rectangular hatch. She clambered up the dusty rungs and examined the latches. She turned the catch and pushed. The panel was open from the inside, but the outside required a key. Good. This was the closest access point to the Memorial. According to Wade, it opened up behind the memorial, near a service entrance. She checked her watch. Fifteen minutes.

She slid back down the ladder and hunkered down to wait.

Alone.

Alone again with her own thoughts.

Just like that night, in what seemed so long ago. The night she had turned from prey to huntress. The day that she had started down the path that led to this one place. A place where she was about to write her love in the stars and leave everything in the hands of fate, once again, risking everything, putting everything on the line. This would not be the first time that she was saving the lives or preserving the safety of others. She'd done that plenty of times. But it was the first time she would be doing it for one person, and one person only.

Kim wondered what Shego was doing right now. Perhaps sunning herself on a deserted island. Or maybe training on some distant mountain peak with her masters. Taking in the sights in a hidden European berg. Or, God forbid, in some drunken orgy... no Shego wasn't like that! Kim refused to believe that her love was like that. She hadn't seen any indication that Shego had ever been interested in a one night stand. Not that she was never tempted, she'd just never indulged. In the woman's own words, "too smart to be so stupid."

Kim checked her wrist Kimmunicator. Still ten minutes. She sighed. It was so hard, the waiting. But there was one person who was counting on her, even if she didn't know it, one person she wanted to impress. It wasn't for her to prove to the world that she was still a hero, or America that she was still an upstanding citizen. She wanted to show Shego that a relationship was not weakness, that affection was not manipulation, that love was powerful, a driving natural force that was beyond comprehension.

Kim wanted Shego to come home, like she felt she had that fateful night in the comforting embrace of the villainess's arms. She wanted Shego to come home to her.

Her Kimmunicator chimed.

Kim gathered herself, took a deep breath. She let it out slowly, her eyes closed. A soft blue glow began to sparkle along the edges of her skin. Her eyes snapped open, the hard core of bottomless resolve steely in her eyes.

Showtime.

- KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP -

Kim lifted the access panel. The panel opened in the midst of shrubs and trees, which was a relief. Even if it was completely ineffectual against the nanocloud, she felt better for the visual cover. It was already late, close to nine at night. The setting sun was ruddy, spreading orange-red pools of sunlight and stretching surrounding her. Through the foliage on her right was the Arlington Bridge and the Equestrian statues. To her left was a ten brick high wall, topped with the Doric temple and Romanesque Memorial.

She could hear the distant explosions from the feint. She slipped out of the access panel, and sprinted toward the pale wall, her repulsor field sparkling all over her body as it staved off nanites. She leaped at the last moment and ran up the wall three, four, five feet, before lunging and grasping the top of the wall. She flipped over the edge and ran to the nearest, soaring column. Around her, the dark shadows cut deeply, but she could see her destination, a vent register high up on the side of the Memorial's rear wall. She snapped her arm toward it and her wrist grapple bolted to the wall. The wire reeled her up. Within a moment and with the help of her laser lipstick, a plastic and crystal affair, she had the grill removed and was crawling her way inside.

She resolutely ignored everything she found inside the vent and followed the route Wade had mapped out with her. Five feet forward, turn right. Another thirty feet, turn left. Down ten in a maintenance shaft, then through another vent and a last ten feet. The register was old and the edges crumbling. She'd have to be careful. She peered through grill, donning her spectral glasses. Almost forty feet below, the view of the marble floor was clear, but for an odd looking contraption that sat directly before the stature of America's sixteenth president. It was squat and squarish, a dark dark red that was almost black. She searched the field of view as much as she could. No other weird contraptions or machines. She waited a few minutes and a massive, near blinding pulse of radio frequency emanated from the irregularly shaped thing. The communications device.

All clear.

She tucked away the glasses, slid a small hook through the grill, then melted out the screws. The register swung silently on her hook before she pulled it inside the vent. She dropped directly behind device, the black box in her hand. She scanned left, then right before pressing the box firmly against the dark communications device. She pressed the button. The LED light flickered red, orange, then green.

Almost immediately, the box sank into side of the communications device she was supposed to get Wade to hack. Was that supposed to happen? Of all the eventualities and outcomes Wade had mentioned, that was not one of them. And if there could be one surprise... The hair on the back of her neck prickled.

She dove forward as something huge blew past where she had been just a split second ago. She vaulted over the device, but as she flew over it, something snagged her right heel and she fell with painful violence to the floor, banging her head on the marble with a sickening thump.

The world shuddered black, then faded back in and spun, revolving, shifting in a nauseating fashion. She lifted her head groggily when an attempt to dislodge her foot ended with both feet being restrained, and her eyes widened in shock.

Rising out of the flat, black surface of the communications device was a pair of red glowing eyes and a malicious grin that made her shudder with horror. Hands flowed out of the shape, gripping her ankles. And even more shocking, behind, no longer seated on the throne, but recovering from a grab, was the statue of Abraham Lincoln with glaring red eyes staring at her, the flickering red light in the statute's eyes giving the lie to its calmly thoughtful visage.

"Thank you my dear. You've brought me the last piece of my puzzle." Kim bucked weakly, fighting the urge to vomit. The black red shape flowed and shifted together into the shape of a slightly overweight man.

"What... who...?" she got out from between her teeth.

"My apologies, my dear! I am Hellbourne. And you, are the great, if slightly tarnished, Kim Possible." He lifted her effortlessly with both his hands, hanging her upside down. She threw a punch, trying to twist out of his grasp. She scored a perfect hit in the... man's? thing's? solar plexus, but it was like hitting a steel plate.

"Ow!"

"Now, my dear, is that any way to treat your future husband?" Kim's mind reeled as dread shivered through her.

"What? Ew!" she gagged.

"Oh... but I insist," he growled with a grin. His hands began to glow a dark, deep red that turned brighter and brighter. The blue field that covered her skin suddenly winked out, and the blackish-red began to seep into the white of her suit.

"Wait! What are you... no!" Kim cried, still disoriented and sick, watching her pristine white nanite suit darkening at an alarming rate.

"Drakken never knew what he was toying with, and neither did that fool, Akari. The Centurion project?" Hellbourne snorted derisively. "Mister Load's work, however... very intriguing. But there is so much inefficiency, so many problems with individuals, in this world. So much waste and squalor. So man, this parasite, this filthy, dirty world destroying hunger, must end. And you, my dear, and I... we will be Adam and Eve to a new lifeform, a new pair of dominant movers of fate and fortune! With my builder program and your Mister Load's fine battlesuit, you are the only one worthy to be remade in the image of God!"

"I... I don't..." Kim's nausea was fading, but this allowed her apprehension to begin churning.

"I have infected your famous battlesuit. Soon, your own nanites will be ready to convert you into perfection, as my perfect companion. Yes, my dear. You will become like me, a living network of master nanites! And now that we have access to Global Justice's satellite system through your boy genius's little hacking device, I shall impregnate you with a million children, and you shall be the mother to the new nanite race!"

Kim gritted her teeth against her panicked shriek of terror at the insanity that glowed in the nanite man's eyes.

"Of course, the conversion is excruciating, and you may die," Hellbourne said, in a disinterested manner. "But if you make it past the next nine hours, you should survive."

Swirling clouds appeared around her wrists and ankles, coalescing into very solid silver restraints. It stretched her taught, holding her spread eagled and upright in mid air. Her world began to spin and fade as floating video cameras began appearing all around them.

An then the dark swallowed her whole, dread and defiance together.


	33. Wake Up Lyrics

**Wake Up**  
**by Win Butler and Régine Chassagne **  
**Performed by The Arcade Fire**

Somethin' filled up  
my heart with nothin',  
someone told me not to cry.

But now that I'm older,  
my heart's colder,  
and I can see that it's a lie.

Children wake up,  
hold your mistake up,  
before they turn the summer into dust.

If the children don't grow up,  
our bodies get bigger but our hearts get torn up.  
We're just a million little gods causin' rain storms turnin' every good thing to rust.

I guess we'll just have to adjust.

With my lightnin' bolts a glowin'  
I can see where I am goin' to be  
when the reaper he reaches and touches my hand.

With my lightnin' bolts a glowin'  
I can see where I am goin'  
With my lightnin' bolts a glowin'  
I can see where I am, go-go, where I am

You'd better look out below


	34. Chapter Seventeen: Wake Up

A/N:

Kim Possible and related characters © Disney

Wake Up © The Arcade Fire

I own Carmen Marshall, Autumn Gale and Eddie.

Lily is on loan from Love Robin.

Song: paste this to the end of the youtube web address "/watch?v=1-wEBmLht5g"

- KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP -

**Chapter Seventeen: Wake Up**  
_by sweetPixiesmile_

She glared at the instrument, her face a rictus of swirling confusion and numbing despair. She sprawled on the cold wood floor of her darkened room.

"Shego! C'mon, open the door," the muffled voice called from the other side of the closed door.

She lay down, the tears falling carelessly and closed her dull eyes, willing herself to a dreamless sleep. Eventually, the pleading sound of Carmen's voice faded away, absorbed into the swirling void of lethargy.

Shego stifled the quivering fear that shot through her as an irritatingly loud buzzing alarm sheared through to her consciousness. She was lying on the ground before the Stratocaster, dark sheets wrapped around her body. She buried her head deeper in a mass of blankets, the fluffy dark squares blending perfectly with her hair. The alarm continued for several minutes, causing her to bury her head in the comforter with a frustrated groan.

She was tired, so tired. For the last two weeks, Shego had tried to lose herself in the dreamless balm of sleep. It was a sort of Lethe so that the days blurred together, but was completely ineffective against clarity of her memories. The alarm that had woken her from her slumber continued to blare for several more minutes, before suddenly ceasing mid squawk.

The agony of irritation at the alarm was nothing to the swell of ire that rose at the roar of triumph that rippled through the fifty story building. She closed her eyes, but the exasperation did not dissipate enough to let her rest again. Why was that? Shego lay, her limbs leaden and her mind numb, considering the situation. There would only be one reason why the big blue doofus would nearly kill himself by shouting in a fifty foot building that he was at the bottom of. Which meant,... Shego frowned. Even in her disinterested state, her mind began to work and her aggravation kept her company until it was interrupted twenty minutes later.

Outside, she could hear muttering, a deep worried voice that droned on and on, interfering with her half-formed, half-hearted unconscious attempt to disappear, somehow, from herself. The voice argued with itself, chased itself back and forth, around in circles, as her vexation rose, building indistinct mutter by indistinct mutter. It swelled, building exponetially, transforming into an impatient conflagration of malevolence that snapped at the catalytic sound of pounding on her door.

"Uh, sis,... I need to talk to you," a voice rumbled.

She turned her back to the door, her face troubled.

"C'mon, sis, I know you're there," the man pleaded. She shut her eyes against the rising tide of resentment and malice, scowling at the effort.

"It's important, Shego! And urgent!" She buried her face in her black satin pillow.

_Why can't they just..._

"I really gotta talk to you, Shego, and if you don't open the door now, I'm coming in!"

"Go away," she croaked, her voice rusty from uncontrolled bouts of grief and guilt.

"What?"

"I said go the fuck away!" Her shriek was desperate. She hated that.

"Open the door, Shego!"

"Fuck off!"

The door frame shuddered as super-powered fists dented its surface.

"Please Shego, Justice and Freedom depend on us!"

"Justice and Freedom can bugger themselves all they like!"

"C"mon... Shego... please..." She sighed. Once Hego got started with the waterworks, he was likely to go on for hours.

"Stop blubbering or I won't open the door," she called out.

"Oh... okay..." she could hear stifled sniffling and smirked as she stayed in bed. Ten more minutes passed before her door suffered another round of pounding.

"Shego! I'm serious! C'mon!"

"Alright, alright, stop hitting the door," she sighed.

Shego rolled her eyes at the warbling pleading. With a long suffering groan, she rolled over and sat up heavily. Grumbling murderous threats, she rose to her feet. She didn't want to open the door, but she knew that the big blue jerkwad would not leave her alone, if her guess was right. She slipped over to the door silently, and waited, listening intently. She could hear her brother outside pacing impatiently back and forth, muttering irritably. After about three minutes, the pacing stopped in front of the door. She yanked the door open.

Caught in mid swing, Hego stumbled into the room, falling to his hands a knees before her.

"You want to be my slave? Very well, I accept," she smirked down at the hulking man. Even on his hands and knees, his back still came up to her chest.

"Yes... yes, good joke, ha ha..." he said as he slowly got up off the ground.

"Spit out whatever you've got to say so I can throw you out faster."

"I-" Hego's face turned a darker shade of blue as he reigned in his irritation. "Fine. A call came in. A big one. And..." His face turned another shade darker. "We-" His voice was strangled, whatever he was trying to say sticking in his craw.

"Nnnnnngh..."

Shego stared at his struggling face.

"Nnnnnne..."

She arched an eyebrow.

"Nnnnnnngeeeee..."

Deep down she knew she shouldn't be enjoying this as much as she was.

"Need you!"

Shego blinked as the hulking man in the blue and black harlequin catsuit bent over, his hands on his knees, breathing laboriously.

"Whooof! I never... thought I'd... be able to... get that out...!"

"Must be a pretty good call if you're willing to say that," she mused.

"Yeah."

"Something really good, really important," she continued in a honeyed voice.

"It'll put Team Go back on the map! On people's radars!"

"Oh, like that, is it?"

"Yeah!"

"And now that you finally need my help, you come crawling to me because you always knew I was the brains of the outfit."

"Yeahhhhhhh- uh,... wait," Hego faltered, his eyes uncertain.

"Oh, come off it, _brother_," she sneered. "You always knew."

"I... uh... okay, fine, yes, yes, you were always the smart one, the brains, the reason why we'd win!" Hego shook his head and spread his hands. "Please, help us and take this call with us!"

"You... want me... an internationally wanted felon... to play hero again?"

"You were never really evil, sis-"

"And you would know that wouldn't you."

"Uh..." his eyes shifted guiltily away.

"No."

"What?"

"Not gonna to happen."

"Bu-!"

"Nu-uh"

"Shego, plea-"

"A-buh-buh-buh-buh-buh! Been there, done that. That train has sailed."

"Uh... I believe that's 'ship'-"

"And you still don't get mixed-metaphor jokes."

"C'mon sis! This is it! We could make it to the big leagues!"

"I've _been _in the big leagues for the last four years! While all you've been doing is wrapping tacos!"

"As a villain! What kind of life is that?"

"Mine! My own! With my own choices and my own mistakes and _no one_ to answer to!"

"After all this time, you're still so selfish!"

Shego's face darkened with anger.

"Yeah, you'd know selfish... wouldn't you."

"I-... what do you mean?" Hego laughed weakly.

"After all these years, did you ever try to clear my name?"

"What are you talking about?"

"Caitlyn, you shit! I waited a whole fucking year, sitting on my ass, just _waiting_ for a sign, any sign! And you never did! You turned your yellow back on me. _You_ betrayed _me_!"

"You left! You left us to deal with the the mess that you left behind!"

"I did it for her! I did it for you!"

"You did it for yourself!"

"I loved her!"

"You never loved Caitlyn!" Hego roared, his eyes blazing a bright blue. His muscles bunched and heaved, shuddering as the tide of pent up animosity and guilt tore through him.

"What the fuck do you kno-" she ground out.

"You just used her," he interrupted her, "like you used the rest of us!"

"You shut that pie hole-"

"She told me! She said she was so scared of letting you down, so afraid that she wouldn't live up to your expectations!"

Shego's peal of mocking laughter shocked Hego out of his momentum.

"You used me back then too, you know. And now you're using Caitlyn just to get back into the Game."

"You're wrong! People need heroes, they need hope!"

"You're a hero junkie! You'd do anything to be one again. Even using your dead lover's name to manipulate your sister!"

"I didn't burn her body to destroy evidence!"

Shego's eyes flew wide. Her pupils dilated, large dark circles against a crackling, luminescent green. They stood, panting, set hard against one another. Shego's body was vibrating from the suddenly loosed turmoil, torn loose from the moorings of her own strangled self, freed by the harsh words of her brother.

"I... wasn't...," Shego bit down on each word, her eyes blazing brighter and brighter as she forced the syllables past her gritted teeth.

"The... one...", Her voice rose in volume until she screeched out the last words in a tortured howl.

"...Who KILLED HER!"

Trailing green sparks, Shego launched herself at Hego. Her tackle took him by surprise, knocked him into the wall by the door, opposite of the wall to wall shatterproof glass that was fitted with security shutters. His body punched through the dry wall, bouncing him painfully off the concrete underneath. He stumbled forward as he rebounded. Shego came in with a whirling kick. He took the brunt of her attack along his left jaw, lowering his shoulder and responded with a glowing backhand. Shego leaned back but the glow clipped her, spinning her back towards the shuttered windows. She slid awkwardly, her clawed hand snagging the wall and digging deep trailing furrows, drywall and wood splinters flying everywhere.

Hego leaped forward with an inarticulate bellow, fists churning, brawler style. Shego knew better than to face him head on, but in such a small confined area, there was little space for manoeuvring. She slipped in close. Left, right, she ducked under Hego's swings and hammered hard at the ribs and kidneys.

The hulking blue man grunted in pain and swept an elbow back from a right that punched a hole through the concrete wall. The elbow cracked across Shego's shoulder, hurling her across the length of the room, barreling her through the bed frame. The frame shattered, the mattress shredding from the force of Shego's body. Hego was on top of her in an instant.

She twisted, a spring slipping free from her back as she slid inside Hego's swing with a slide step. Her left hand came around and with a bright green flash, she struck his side with a concussive, open palm blast that rattled the shutters. His body flew back and into the bedroom door. The metal door cracked and bent with a grating squeal. Bluish blood ran down the side of his neck. Shego came in with a flaming claw combo that blistered his skin and burned patches off his Team Go uniform. Hego clenched his two fists and hammered downward . She flipped back but as she retreated, those huge hands struck and shattered the wood slats. He dug his hands into the sub flooring and tore it up, flinging it at the retreating green villainess in one single motion. Shego dug her claws into the ground, letting the momentum of her flip to force her down, slapping down hard and flat on the ground as the piece of sub flooring caught at her hair as it passed. She immediately sprang forward, slipping past the charging Hego. He skidded, ploughing up more wood and concrete as he tried to stop, twisting around . She ran full tilt, jumping up and kicking off the wall to fly over Hego as he stopped.

It was over in a moment.

A flailing blue arm connected, dislocating and fracturing Shego's jaw painfully as she flew past, but as she did, she dug her claws deep into her brother's meaty shoulders. Slamming her feet into the ground, she heaved, flipping her brother through the inch thick defence shutters, through the half inch security glass. He fell, roaring all the way down, his blue glow shining bright against the morning sun, winking out as he struck the ground.

She stood at the hole in the security shutters, gazing down at the distant body of her brother. Two reddish specks appeared, gathering around the fallen hero. She stumbled back, eyes watering from the pain.

Her brother was gone. Not dead, he was too stubborn and stupid to die from a fifty story fall. Fractures and dislocations, maybe. But he was going to leave her alone at least for a little while. Shego screeched as she reached up and brutally reset her jaw. Sweat dripped from her as she held it in place, allowing her healing to kick in.

He was gone, but the guilt, the self-contempt his words had unearthed, remained, burning her with a supernova flare that ran up and down her spine, relentless blades of recrimination and despondency.

Her scream of rage and loss blew out the rest of the security shutters and glass, exploding from the super charged shockwave of her voice.

- KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP -

Shego sat, huddled in the corner of the remains of her bed, shuddering, miserable from a roiling worry, a pervasive trembling that shivered through her splintered heart. She stared at the gleaming chrome and cracked lacquer of Caitlyn's guitar. It shone underneath a surviving bright pot light, the strings dull and brown with age, the neck slightly bowed, never having been refurbished.

She had been near incommunicado since Kim's impassioned plea on national television. She slept listlessly, ate sporadically, alone, always alone. The others had come knocking. Carmen had shown up everyday at her door.

So, a call had come in. A serious call. She shook her head at the morning's events. The big blue idiot had hooked up a klaxon alarm to the "big call" line. She'd nearly gone ballistic hearing the blaring cacophony of presumption and bluster. His joyful bellow shook the foundations.

Hego had finally gotten the courage to barge into her room, to plead his case to accept the call. He even admitted what they'd always known, that she had been the master, the glue, the genius of Team Go. Shego knew he would have said anything to get back into "The Game."

She would have nothing to do with it.

Being a hero was what screwed them all up. That was a chapter of her life that she refused, with a tenacity born of desperate survivalist instinct, to unearth and relive. Never. Never again. Not for all to accolade, all the money in the world.

_Hindsight's such a bitch._

Eventually the pleading transformed from pleading to accusations, from accusations to conflagration. Words were their weapons, convulsions of torment their motivational impetus. Painful memories were unearthed and laid bare. Accusations, denials and ultimatums, no weakness left unexploited, no button left unpressed. Old scars were reawakened to thunderously implosive effect, new wounds inflicted. The physical blows that ended the discussion were almost anticlimactic. Although he had gotten in a good solid hit to her chin that broke her jaw, the resulting recoil had allowed her to throw the huge man through her top floor window. Without flight ability, Hego had nothing to help break his downward momentum except his body. He had probably been unconscious for a few seconds after impact. Two red clad figures had exited the Tower and had helped set the man's bones before his healing factor began to repair the damage. Shego had to wrench her jaw into place herself.

Afterwards, she had thrown what was probably her best tantrum ever. Fire proofed walls were scorched and melted, not one single piece of furniture had been left unscathed from her fury. Anything stuffed was now inside out, anything metal or plastic in melted piles. But what stopped her in her rampage was the single instrument that she had laid in a place of honour, above and beyond all her sentimental morass of worldly possessions.

She had stood there, plasma blazing, claws raised, her chest heaving, teeth gritted so tightly one could hear the grinding noise of comet enhanced enamel. A bead of sweat trickled into her glowing eye. She blinked, the green corona surrounding her hands fading. Her arms slowly lowered to her sides, before wrapping tightly around herself. Her wrath fled, and the strength that shored up her fury shattered. She dropped to her knees before the gleaming chrome and shining lacquered wood.

And cried. So much crying. Ever since Kim's interview, Shego had been a mess of uncontrolled emotion. As if the backlog of repressed emotion, now that her sarcastic and cynical facade had completely cracked, continued to rush in uncontrolled torrents through her, making up for lost time.

She wasn't sure for how long she'd wailed her despair, her self-incarcerated spirit struggling in a desperate frenzy against the flood of self-loathing. Eventually, she had stopped, and had crawled to the corner where she sat now. And her mind couldn't stop the truth, her eyes couldn't shut away the despicable thing she had become.

All the feelings, she'd pointed her finger at Kim and accused her of uncontrollable emotions. She had sloughed the detritus of responsibility off on everyone she'd ever known and she now was reliving a hell she'd promised herself she'd never do again. But it wasn't Kim's fault. It wasn't her parents fault. Fuck, it wasn't even Hego's fault, if she was really honest with herself.

She had done this.

She had done this, it was all her own fucking fault.

And she couldn't bring herself to fix it.

"Gawd, some remodelling job, Sheegs."

Shego lifted her head to glare at the tall purple figure who leaned carefully against the twisted and melted security door frame. Mego gave a low whistle as he surveyed the damage, his arms folded across his chest.

"Get lost," she growled at him.

"Put those fucking fangs away, girl," he snapped back.

"Not in the mood, Tiny!" She spat at him.

"I don't fucking care. You're lucky the twins were here when you kicked you own brother out a fiftieth floor window." A sliver of guilt slid a tiny spike into her and she squirmed slightly, turning away from her brother. Mego walked purposefully into the centre of her maelstrom.

"Yeah, you nearly killed your own fucking brother for telling you the truth. Good thing the twins were here and that blue lummox is near unbreakable and has slower healing than the rest of us. They were able to reset the bones before they started to reknit."

"Fuck off," she muttered a retort.

"So he's okay now, you bitch, thanks for asking."

"If you're done, the door's right there," the woman snarled, her eyes glowing brighter.

"I'm not going anywhere, Sis. This is it. Time for the talk."

"Don't need it."

"You just nearly killed your fucking brother and almost demolished Go Tower on top your baby brothers with your sorry little hissy fit, and you say you 'don't need it'? Fuck that Sheegs!"

"GET OUT!" she roared, launching herself at the purple coloured super. Mego shrunk beneath the fist, then grew himself back to his normal height, his forehead smacking into Shego's chin with incredible force. Her head snapped back, her vision filled with flashes. Instinctively, she went into a sweeping two claw combo and flowed into a low leg sweep. Mego, had shrunk again to duck the claw combo, but the leg sweep caught him. As he fell, Shego spun into a roundhouse kick. Mego brought his arms together. He hard blocked the kick and slid back several feet.

"And what? I'm not that blue moron, you know. You've had this coming. It's time to face up to your own fucking failures, Green Bean!" Mego leapt forward, his legs shrinking, ducking another jumping kick. His legs suddenly expanded, sending him into a body tackle that knocked the wind out of Shego. They flew past the guitar, her back slamming painfully against one of the exposed metal struts of the building frame. Shego's flaming claw caught him in the side. The sizzle of searing flesh was frightening. Mego fell back with a cry. The comet-powered villainess surged forward, her claws flailing wildly, technique forgotten in the haze of guilt fuelled battle fury.

"Leave!" A flaming clawed right.

"Me!" A clawed left.

"ALONE!" A flip kick caught her weaving brother in the chin. As he staggered, she hit him in the chest with a double fisted hammer punch. Mego flew backward. He bounced twice before landing in a heap.

"Or what...?" he snarled back, hoarking blood laced spit on the floor, wiping a trickle of purple blood from his lips. "You gonna kill me so you can just run away again? Like when Caitlyn died?" Shego, who had been advancing, stopped and stiffened.

"I DID NOT RUN AWAY!" she screamed, her entire body flaring a bright green.

"Yeah you did! You fucking c-coward!" Mego stuttered, a sharp pain lancing along his side. Cracked ribs, probably.

"Say that again." Shego's shoulders hunched, her eyes dangerous.

"Coward!"

Shego charged forward with a cry and snatched the purple man, her older brother, off the rubble of her room floor. As she was about to slam him against the wall, he shrunk to the size of a mouse, instantly escaping her grip, scurrying along her arm. She stumbled as the full one hundred and eighty pounds of his body weighed down on her, unbalancing the impetus of her momentum. He expanded as he jumped down, off her shoulder, and kicked her legs from under her unbalanced body. Shego fell heavily. He immediately put her into an arm bar, grasping her thumb and twisting her arm painfully.

"You've always run, Sheegs," Mego panted into the green woman's ear as he leveraged her arm with his other hand, his foot in the small of her back. "When Mom and Dad died, when the feds put us in test tubes, when Hego went nuts... you just cut and ran like a little pussy!"

"Shut up... shut up..." Shego choked out as Mego leaned harder. Her right arm was trapped under her.

"You said you'd never love... but you loved Caitlyn! But she loved Hego, and you let her go. You never, ever forgave yourself because you couldn't save her. And you let the wolves eat up your brothers, your family."

"You little fuck, shut up!" Shego screeched, panting against the pain.

"And now, you've let those same wolves have Kim, haven't you? You've run out on her because you're scared shitless that you'll go through the same damn thing again-"

"SHUT UP!" Plasma flared all along Shego's arm. Mego jumped back from the heat, then dodged to the side as the incensed woman swiped at him with her claws.

"You didn't kill mom and dad! The government did! They pushed you and pushed you and pushed you... And then Caitlyn. You loved her! So much it hurt. And it's the same with Kim. But this time, you left her to face the music. All by herself."

"No... no I,... she wanted..." Shego's face blanched, the glow dying as the shock of Mego's words struck her very core, shattering the whirling anger.

"She loved you, she still loves you! You fucking hypocrite! When are you going to wake up and own up to the things you've done, the things you're doing! Wake the fuck up-" With a growl, Shego shot in close, her claws seizing the tall lanky man by the shoulders as she charged and slammed him into the wall. The concrete cracked for a foot around him as he gasped at the impact, pain spearing into him.

"Don't you think I FUCKING KNOW THAT?" Shego screamed, her plasma reinforced voice shattering the last of the security glass in her room. Her claws had dug deep into the struggling man's shoulders as she lifted her brother bodily. He suddenly staggered as the green glowing woman leaned into him, her grip loosening. She buried her face into his chest. Her shoulders shook, as the suppressed the vortex of sorrow and regret began to leak free of her control, her shoulders hunching against the buffeting tempest of betrayal. Mego slowly lifted his sore arms and held his sister. She drooped, her confession draining all the ire and paving the way for the translation of emotion into a torrent of words. Once started, they could not be stopped.

"I ran from our parents. I ran from what happened to Caitlyn. I ran from what happened to Hego. I act all tough and shit, but I'm the same as I always was. The scared geeky girl, not good enough for anything or anyone." Shego's brittle voice trembled. "I'm so tired of running bro. All I've been doing is running away. Mom and Dad. Hego. Carmen. Caitlyn. And now, Kim."

The mop-haired purple man stood silent in the midst of her carnage. His bright purple eyes glistened, listening to the pain and longing in his sister's voice.

"I always thought... I always thought I was just forging my own destiny, ya know? But all I was doing was just getting pushed around by it." She drew in a shuddering, hitching breath. "I'm tired, Meegs. I'm tired of running. All I want to do now is run to something. Make something."

"And Kim is it?" Mego asked after a moment of silence.

Shego stopped and stepped away. Her mind was churning, her subconsciousness dredging up all the small precious moments that she had thought discarded in an incoherent stream of vivid images. She began to tingle at a sudden surging tide of emotion, something warm, a long forgotten dream. It erupted inside of her, flowed into her limbs from a deepening well of certainty in the middle of her chest.

This is what she wanted, what she needed.

Kim.

Shego closed her eyes, enjoying the released emotion, allowing it to take root in the parched landscape of her innermost being. She felt like a deep sea diver, surfacing from a long exhausting exploration of cramped submarine caverns. It was like breathing, again, for the very first time, fresh and unadulterated air, a cooling, calming wash of relief and familiarity.

She opened her eyes and turned as Mego groaned, pushing himself away from the wall.

"Yeah. She is. Thanks, Meegs," she mumbled, as she reached out a clawed hand to steady the purple man.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm the best, just-" he winced as he coughed. "Gimme a moment, alright?" he finished weakly. He stood still, eventually straightening and taking increasingly deep breaths. Shego rubbed his back whil ehis breathing was still hitched, growing easier and easier by the second. In a few minutes he stretched. While he recovered, Shego began shoving the remnants of her furniture into a corner by the door to the room. Splinters of wood were strewn across the carpet.

"Thank God for healing factor," he sighed. Shego walked past the guitar and stood at the edge of the shattered glass, looking across the sparkling Go City harbour and the darkening orange purple of the setting sun. Mego joined her.

"And if you ever breath a word of this to anyone," the superpowered woman growled menacingly.

"You'll serve up my spleen," Mego smirked back, "just between you and me, sis. You and me."

The quiet moment between brother and sister was shattered by a frantic voice.

"Shego! Shego! Sheg- Oh my god!" The siblings shared a rueful glance before turning to the shocked Carmen. She stared at the remains of the room, her mouth working slightly.

"What is it, Carmen," Shego replied, amused. At the sound of her voice, woman's blue gaze snapped to her face. The desperation in them caused a shiver of foreboding to ripple across the comet-powered villainess' newfound resolve.

"It's Kim, Shego. She's in trouble."

- KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP -

Shego's claws were clammy and trembling as, for a second time in as many weeks, she stared at the television. But the content was quite different. A blood-black visage on the grainy and choppy video feed that was playing on all the major networks. His harmonically distorted voice oozed venomously out of the television. Behind him, Kim hung in the air. Bands of shimmering silver held her, her arms straight out and legs together. Her battlesuit was no longer a pristine shining white with electric blue trim, but a dull red, so dark it was almost black. Veins pulsated with an ominous red glow that writhed and scrabbled, Kim's limbs twitching as they clawed along the black swathe. Her head hung in matted and stringy red ropes, covering her face.

Carmen stood near the corridor to Shego's room. Mego put himself behind the couch, on the other side from Shego.

"See how your nation defends itself! By sending Kim Possible, who had been crucified just two weeks past, little more than a girl, to clean up a National mess!" The villain spat as he monologued. He seized Kim's hair and pulled her head up for the camera.

Carmen gasped, her hands covering her mouth. Mego muttered an incredulous, breathless curse. Shego's eyes began to glow, crackling with energy that spilt from her intense green eyes. Kim's pupils were so dilated, her eyes were dark glazed pools. She breathed in short gasps through clenched teeth. Sweat ran down, dripping down her red, swollen face from constant effort. Dark streaks of congealed blood streaked one side, a dark clumped patch just inside the hairline. But it wasn't the girl's tortured visage that filled Shego with an insistent dread.

Kim's battlesuit's colour typically was a pure white that ended at a tight collar at the nape of her neck. But the blackened, subverted battlesuit had ruddy, thin, crystalline tendrils tipped with pulsating blood red spikes that had covered most of the graceful curve of her neck. As they watched, a tendril convulsed, spearing another half inch up the line of her jaw. Kim unleashed a low quavering, gasping wail as another crystalline line drove towards her left eye. Carmen muffled a small whimper.

"As you can see, Miss Possible's transformation is well underway. She will be the first to experience the power of the new era! In six hours, my nanites will merge with her own! She will be the Eve of your destruction, and join me in obliterating humanity's existence! You will all be transformed into a greater destiny!" The man's insane laughter poured violently from the speakers. Shego's already pale face turned ashen and sick.

"It's the call you nixed, Sheegs," Mego said quietly. Shego stiffened. "It was a call from Global Justice." Shego's mind stuttered as adrenaline coursed through her. She wanted to do nothing but rush to Kim's side, to beat down this upstart villain that threatened to rape and destroy all that was good in her eyes. Her muscles shuddered as she forced down her supernova flare of anger. Her mind began to race, and when she spoke, her voice was a deep, menacing calm.

"Is Hego alright?"

"For this, he will be."

"Wegos' downstairs?"

"They're in the training room."

"Still have the number to Global Justice?"

"Uh... Yeah."

"The Go Jet? Did you guys finish retrofitting the afterburners?"

"How'd you-... never mind, yeah it was delivered just a few months ago. In the hanger."

"My hoverpod's upstairs." Shego tossed him a set of keys. Mego snatched them from the air. "Take Hego and the Wegos to DC. I need the jet."

"Where are you going to be?"

"Ten minute shower, then I'll see you in DC after I visit and old friend. Five hours."

"Wait, Shego," Mego protested, but the woman was already at the elevators. He sighed. Carmen's eyes were torn from the horrendous scene on the television as he turned to her, a fierce grin on his face.

"The Bitch is back."

- KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP -

Her ears still rang from the roar of the jet's specially fitted rocket engines. By her calculations, she would have just enough fuel to get to DC and maybe another short jaunt. The entire 2 hour flight, she ran assault scenarios through her head, an attempt to keep the gnawing fear and self-recrimination at bay, a tidal bore of what-ifs that haunted the horizon of her mind. It had taken her less time to get to the lair than she thought, nearly blacking out from the ten gravity constant acceleration, but now she stood before the small door considered to be the front of the lair.

She punched in her code and grunted when, not only was her code rejected, but a blaring, buzzing alarm began to sound. She rolled her eyes as she stood in full view of the door and waited. In moments, red suited men poured out of side entrances and surrounded her, glowing stun staves in their hands.

"Arvis, a little higher with your right hand," she said. The man shifted his grip, then glanced about in embarrassment.

Walking past the ring of grim, cowled faces, stalked a hulking figure, a familiar cowl-covered face trailing behind.

"You got some octane, coming back here, She-babe," the dirty blond mulleted man said through his handle bar moustache.

She turned to the henchman behind the man in the wife beater and faded blue jeans.

"Eddie, I got replaced by this gear head?"

Eddie shuffled his feet, looking abashed.

"The Doc didn't have any options, all the other applicants sucked," he said, spreading his hands.

"The Dude does not like his underlings talking about him behind his back," Motor Ed grumbled.

"He's family, he hasn't been able to get a good crew together since the whole Monster Truck of Destruction thing," the lead henchman shrugged.

"Stop talking, seriously," the dirty blond complained. Shego opened her mouth, but reconsidered with a sigh.

"Take me to Drew. No matter what's going down in the Villain and Hero world, he owes me."

"Nuthin' doin', Green. You've got no free ticket to ride here, anymore," he said flexing his muscles. Faster than the eye, Shego flicked three green darts into his chest. Motor Ed yelped, then glanced down at his ruined shirt. The word "Dude" was burnt through the cotton fabric.

"Or I could just tear through you guys and take what I want, your choice," Shego said, cocking a hip and looking at her nails.

"Woo! Gotta respect the green magic, seriously," Motor Ed whistled. "But a lady does not diss The Dude."

"Look, if I wanted to, I could have just snuck into the lair and lifted whatever I needed. I'm doing this straight up. Do the same and play straight with me, alright?" Motor Ed considered this for a moment, pulling at one side of his long drooping moustache.

"Righteously said, Green. Alright, I'll talk to my cuz," he said as he pulled out a radio. "Hey Cuz, Green sez she wants to talk. Seriously. What? You are not coming in right, dude. Are you still hiding under the... Seriously? I'll let Green know you'll be in the main hall." He put away the radio. "After the lady," Motor Ed gestured towards the lair door.

"The maybe you should go first?" She didn't hesitate to walk in, trailing laughter as the rest of Drakken's henchmen filed in behind her. Walking in was probably the long way. Ventilation was a lot more efficient, whereas corridors, unless it was from the secret direct door, were meant to confuse. In ten minutes of twists and turns, Shego eventually found herself in the large main chamber.

The high-ceilinged chamber was dark but for the brightly lit dais in the middle of the room. The Henchmen spread out as she'd trained them to do. Drew was standing near his work table.

"Sorry, Shego, I can't give you your job back. As you can see, the position has been filled," he called out.

"Doctor D, I don't have time for dramatics," she replied, walking towards the blue man. "You owe me. You've got something I need. And I need it right now."

"And what makes you think I'll give it to you?"

"You don't really want to go down that road, do you?"

"You need something from me. Not the other way around. The way I see it, you're in no position to nego-"

"Well I could always start with why you were injured when you were beta testing the-"

"Shego! You wouldn't!" Drakken gasped, his eyes bulging from wounded surprise.

"Clear the room, so we can talk. I'll get it one way or another, but I'd rather we all walked away from this healthy. And you know I won't stop for anything, this time." She crossed her arms. "Your choice." Drakken glared at her for a few long moments, long enough that a few of the henchmen shifted their feet uncomfortably.

"You been watching the news?" she asked.

"As a matter of fact, yes, we have."

"So let's talk."

"Oh, very well! Ivan, clear the room!"

"That's Eddie, cuz," Motor Ed corrected him.

"But I'm not talking to you, Edward," Drew squinted in confusion as Eddie barked out orders. The henchmen filed out cautiously.

"You too, Ed."

"Aw seriously?" the mechanical engineer protested. Drew nodded. "I got some Carbonic regulators to get back to. Later, dudes!" And with that Drew's cousin lumbered out of the room.

Drakken watched Shego walk slowly to the dais and come up the stairs. She went over to him and whispered her request in his ear.

"And why would I give that to you?"

"If you've been watching the news, then you know why. You don't have to put up that front with me. You owe me." Drakken looked away first, leaning against his table.

"I... I suppose I do," Drew Lipsky, also known as Doctor Drakken, sighed. "I just thought that, if I did take over the world one day, you'd be there beside me."

"We just happened to be walking the same way. We were strangers and we became friends. But even if my path is leaving yours now, it doesn't mean we aren't still friends." Drakken was quiet for a while.

"Very well," he sighed. "If Kim possible goes down, I'd rather be the one pulling the trigger." Shego's jaw tensed slightly at that, but she let the comment go.

"Thanks, Drew," she said as she turned to leave. As she stepped down from the dais, he spoke again.

"Shego," he called. She stopped and turned to look at the blue mad scientist.

"Yeah, Doctor D?"

"Is she really worth it?"

Shego closed her eyes as a strange, foreign feeling welled up inside her again.

"Yeah," she said, her voice thick. "Yeah, she is." She walked down the dais stairs and headed quickly for the storage room corridor.

"Good luck," he said as her back disappeared through one of the rear entrances. "You'll both need it."


	35. Love Spreads Lyrics

**Love Spreads  
by John Squire**  
**Performed by The Stone Roses**

Love spreads her arms, waits there for the nails  
I forgive you, boy, I will prevail  
Too much to take, come cross to bear  
I'm hiding in the trees with a picnic, she's over there, yeah

Yeah, yeah, yeah  
Yeah, yeah, yeah

She didn't scream, she didn't make a sound  
I forgive you boy, but don't leave town  
Cold black skin, naked in the rain  
Hammer flash in the lightning, they're hurting her again

Let me put you in the picture, let me show you what I mean  
The messiah is my sister, ain't no king man, she's my queen

I have a dream, I've seen the light  
Don't put it out, say she's alright, yeah, she's my sister

She didn't scream, she didn't make a sound  
I forgive you boy, but don't leave town  
Cold black skin, naked in the rain  
Hammer flash in the lightning, they're hurting her again  
Oh, oh, ooh  
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah

Let me put you in the picture, let me show you what I mean  
The messiah is my sister, ain't no king man, she's my queen

I have a dream, I've seen the light  
Don't put it out, say she's alright, yeah, she's my sister


	36. Chapter Eighteen: Love Spreads

**A/N:**

**Kim Possible and all related characters © Disney**

**Love Spreads © The Stone Roses**

**I own Carmen Marshall, Autumn Gale and Eddie.**

**Lily is on loan from Love Robin.**

**Song: copy and paste this after the youtube web address "**/watch?v=ct-qa6SjRZo"

- KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP -

**Love Spreads**  
_by sweetPixiesmile_

The broadcast was the most listened to program in history, heard by billions across the world, through the communication systems of whole nations corrupted by Hellbourne's nanite horde. Forget commercial stations and electronic media streams. Forget the simple radio stations or media player streamcasts. Anything electronic, capable of generating sound was forced to receive and broadcast the sound. Top secret military and political communication channels were not exempt.

Many thought it was some sort of lowbrow, off-colour, vulgar prank. But as they attempted to turn off their appliances or change the station, source or stream, a horrified realization came to the masses of aghast, unwilling witnesses.

Mouths hung open in incredulous disgust and terror. Tears flowed from eyes. Ears covered to block out the horrific sounds. Hands clenched and unclenched in futile anger and shame. Across the skein of human consciousness across the world, the minds of people in all nations convulsed in shock at what they were being forced to listen to.

The rape of world celebrated hero, Kim Possible.

It was not a traditional sexual assault she suffered. It was a rape of body and mind. The subverted battlesuit nanites invaded the girl's frame, their programming corrupted by Hellbourne's own nanites. With the tools and powers of the battlesuit, they were well prepared for the task they had been given. The transformation of the world's winningest and most darling hero into Hellbourne's number one henchwoman and breeding ground.

Many attempted to flee the sounds.

The gasps of pain.

The shrieks of torture.

The small, pleading, inarticulate voice.

She sounded like someone's daughter, like anyone's sister.

And she was. Unbeknown to the dispassionate, hurried, harried public, Kim's exploits had not just become the stuff of legend, it had become cathartic, inspirational. She had come to mean something: that someone, anyone, could be a hero, do the right thing; not for money or for fame, but just because their hearts had directed them to do what was right. Generous to a fault, compassionate beyond comprehension. The public that had lambasted the girl who could, and would, do anything for complete strangers, who had targeted her and forced her to retire from the hero business a mere month ago, were now crucifixional accomplices, and were forced to listen to and face what they had done in their heartless court of public opinion.

They fled in their millions, hands scrabbling to yank power cords from electrical sockets, to tear batteries from portable players, smart phones and laptops.

But many forced themselves to endure the pain, the shame of what the world had done. They listened to the girl's sobs, not in glee or condemnation, not in perversion or hilarity. They listened, forcing down their rising gorges, eyes wet with tears, because they owed it to the girl who had save the world more times than they would ever know.

In the command tent outside of Washington DC, a tall, one-eyed woman sat immobile in her chair, her face strained, lips compressed in a thin, ineffectual line as tears ran down her tanned cheek. A few agents that had arrived shortly with a report of a hoverpod sighting poured over the video feed, trying to ignore the scene as they combed the visual for anything, anything that could give a rescue mission a green light or an edge. A short black boy typed furiously at a small portable terminal, his eyes wet with rage. Crime fighting agencies across the world listened with lowered heads, some praying, some crying.

In homes across the breath of the world, survivors of countless horrors and disasters, whose lives had changed because of one red-headed hero, clasped their hands together, to share the agony and to shoulder the burden, promising to follow her example.

In one house in Middleton, a blond youth sat on a blue couch, his hands covering his face as he shuddered in grief and guilt. Beside him, a pink and black haired girl clutching his arm, her face buried in his shoulder. And who thought a naked mole rat could cry?

In another house in Middleton, a tall, statuesque, brilliant brain surgeon clung to a bleeding edge aeronautics engineer as two equally exceptional boys huddled at their feet.

And it went on… and on.

For hours.

But perhaps what would have meant most to the cheerleader turned world-saving teen, was a particular green-tinted woman. A woman whose rallied family members had arrived earlier in a hoverpod, she herself appearing in a shattering roar on a black and green hypersonic jet, who had stormed in to confront a shocked Global Justice Director with blood in her eye.

The leader of the international crime fighting organization took one look at the agony on the woman's face and had immediately assigned a support team, an escort and signed papers for safe transit to the disaster site in Washington, D.C. and take to the field.

As the green woman climbed aboard the refuelled jet, Betty spoke to Shego.

"Save her."

No words were needed.

Shego simply nodded before boarding her jet. The plane roared down the stretch of freeway turned runway tarmac and soared into the sky.

_Just hold on a little longer._

_I'm coming, Princess._


	37. Monsoon Lyrics

**Monsoon**  
**by Bill Kaulitz, Dave Roth, Patrick Benzner, and David Jost**  
**Performed by Tokio Motel**

I'm staring at a broken door  
there's nothin left here anymore  
my room is cold  
it's makin me insane  
I've been waitin' here so long  
but now the moment seems to've come  
I see the dark clouds comin' up again

Runnin' through the monsoon  
beyond the world  
to the end of time  
where the rain won't hurt  
fighting the storm  
into the blue  
and when i lose myself  
i'll think of you  
together we'll be running somewhere new  
through the monsoon  
just me and you

a half moon's fading from my sight  
i see your vision in it's light  
but now it's gone and left me so alone  
i know i have to find you now  
can hear your name  
i don't know how  
why can't we make this darkness feel like home

running through the monsoon  
beyond the world  
to the end of time  
where the rain won't hurt  
fighting the storm  
into the blue  
and when i lose myself  
i'll think of you  
together we'll be running somewhere new  
and nothing can hold me back from you  
through the monsoon

hey! - hey!  
i'm fightin all it's power  
comin' in my way  
let it take me straight to you  
i'll be running night and day  
i'll be with you soon, just me and you,  
we'll be there soon, so soon…

running through the monsoon  
beyond the world  
to the end of time  
where the rain won't hurt  
fighting the storm  
into the blue  
and when i lose myself  
i'll think of you  
together we'll be running somewhere new  
and nothing can hold me back from you  
through the monsoon  
through the monsoon  
just me and you  
through the monsoon  
just me and you


	38. Chapter Nineteen: Monsoon

**A/N:**

**Kim Possible and all related characters © Disney**

**Monsoon © Tokio Motel**

**I own Carmen Marshall, Autumn Gale and Eddie.**

**Lily is on loan from Love Robin.**

**Song: copy and paste this after the youtube web address "/watch?v=W0s1cH36q1U"**

- KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP -

**Monsoon**  
_by sweetPixiesmile_

Hego gave a small grunt as he forced the black fibreglass helmet down onto his rather large noggin. His clear faceplate was still flipped up. Shego put on her own helmet, ignoring the man's shining blue eyes.

The Wegos were standing to the side, making goofy faces from inside their closed faceplates. She rolled her eyes as Mego grumbled about helmet hair before slipping on his own protector. A Global Justice Operative stood beside a swirling yellow alarm and a spring loaded crash button.

Wade sat back on his heels and wiped his brow. Before him was an affixed mission pack. Fittingly, in his mind, one of Kim's. He pulled at the nylon tie down belts and pulled on the ratcheting the levers two more times. After several clicks, he locked down each. Shego walked up as he slid off the side of the large black device.

"Remember, the jetpack will only give you thrust, not lift, right? It also comes equipped with a crash chute. It's got a minimum drop of... wait, how much do you weigh?"

Shego didn't hesitate and whispered the number in his ear.

"Really? I thought..." one look at her suddenly dangerously glowing eyes cause the genius to falter before continuing. "Uh, anyway, the minimum deployment altitude, including Drakken's device, is three hundred feet at any speed, but you can deploy any time after a thousand. I've turned off the auto-deploy, so if you need to use it, pull the yellow strip. Just don't forget to shield it along with Drakken's device, or the nanites will split it and you'll all be roasted alive."

"Got it. How're we doing for time?"

Wade checked his watch.

"Twenty minutes coming up."

A shiver of fear ran through her.

"Kim's only got twenty minutes left?"

"Hellbourne isn't as smart as he wants everyone to think. I've got a couple of Faraday nanites in Kim's suit relaying telemetry. I included them in case Kim was captured. I reviewed the signals that the Centurion Project suits sent back before they were turned, so I've figured out the process and procedure the nanites are using. The nanites're waiting to do the final push. It's converted most of the bone structure, skin and muscles. but it'll do everything else, organs, circulatory and nervous system, all in one massive push. That'll be your window to get the inoculator into her. Once the final push is on, she'll never be able to revert, ever. Kim will cease to exist. You plug her with this while she's being turned, she'll turn into a puddle of nanites."

Shego lifted the inoculator Wade handed to her. It was a eight inch long black tube. On one end was a large red button. On the other were two metallic nubs covered by a spring loaded pressure sensitive retracting tip.

"Fucking thing looks like a cattleprod," she muttered.

"They didn't have anything else but this stun stick, and this was after I made the Faraday mesh."

"Not complaining, we'll see if you did it right," she quipped, sliding the inoculator into her thigh pouch.

"Don't forget to put Kim in the Faraday bag. If you light Drakken's generator, I can't guarantee if she'll be safe after inoculation. I gotta check the Wegos and make sure they know how the spare jetpacks work," Wade called over his shoulder as he turned away, heading toward the Team Go twins. Both had the mission backpack jetpacks on and were fiddling with the controls with wary looks on their faces. A brown haired and tanned man in Global Justice blue who was instructing them was aloof and distant.

"How's it going, Agent Du?" she heard Wade ask before turning away from them. She went over to Drakken's device, a large, flat oval, and walked around it once, pulling at the polyester tie-downs. On one end, a glowing blue tube protruded slightly. She patted the priming tube.

_Of course, Drew would use blue._

"How're you holding up, Sheegs?" She turned to see the soft glow of purple eyes watching her from behind a faceplate.

"A mile high jump into a nanite cloud that could tear us limb from limb if it could, with only about fifteen minutes to save the one good thing in this world before she turns into a doomsday nanite factory? Pretty good," she managed a smirk. Inside, her stomach churned with a seething horror.

"Good to have you back."

"I don't care what they tell us," Shego said quietly. "Kim is priority numero uno, comprende?" She nodded at Hego and the Wegos. The two reddish teens were describing the workings of the jetpack to the large blue man, who was rubbing the back of his head dubiously. "Already mentioned it to the guys." She stepped close to whisper in he brother's ear.

"We do this, we do it right. Fuck the Prez and the Joint Chiefs. They're a dime a dozen. The world needs... _I_ need Kim."

Suddenly a klaxon went off and the whole cargo bay of the Go Jet darkened to red alarm strobes.

"Entering the zone. Two minutes. Cargo bay doors opening. Take your posts," crackled the communications intercom.

The klaxon sounded again as the yellow sirens flashed, the cargo doors opening. The whistling of the wind turned to a dull roar as the ramp lowered. Hego hefted the device onto his shoulders. Shego's brothers scrambled onto Drakken's invention and wrapped several loose nylon tie-down straps onto their hands tightly, bronco style. She stopped in front of the immense blue man and touched her helmet to his.

"That's our cue. You ready, big brother?" she shouted.

"We were made for this, sis."

"Then let's go, bro."

"You always were a bossy bitch," he said in reply. With the lights off and the red strobes flashing, she couldn't see his face, but she sensed his grin. She backed up and gave him a series of old Team Go hand gestures. He didn't argue, and just nodded.

Shego flipped on top of the non-reflective surface of the oblongated device, smirking as she tossed aside her boots and wriggled her green toes. She planted her feet on the black surface. Her heels flared then dimmed as the entire device took on a slight greenish hue. She wrapped the final, central tie down strap around her wrist, then gave a short series of gestures as the Wegos and Mego looked on. They all nodded.

To the side, Will Du rotated his arm a full circle before pointing down the fully opened ramp as they hit the DZ.

She never thought she'd be the one to say it, again after so many years, so much pain and longing and betrayal and just shit. But there was a rising urgency inside her, a relentless drive and purpose that centred on one thing and one thing only. Kim. She would do anything, go anywhere, tackle any personal demons for her, to be with her. She knew that now.

_I'm coming, Princess._

"Go Team Go!" she shouted, her battlecry.

With a shattering roar, Hego rushed down the decline, the device firmly in his grip and jumped off the ramp.

The air hit them like a howling devil, tearing both Wegos off the device. They clung to the tie down belts they had wrapped around their wrists. Mego had worked his free hand under one of the ties and was laughing. Hego clung to another strap that tied around his waist, securing him to the device and was pulling himself onto the black surface.

Other than the rushing roar of the wind, it was one of the eeriest jumps Shego had ever made.

The wide dull sheet of the Potomac drew their no cross zone in the distance ahead. The land was a weird pre-dawn grey. Dark formless shapes were everywhere. Everything was blurred and indistinct behind the early morning haze. Dark pillars of smoke rose before them from the distant ground, dissipating to the north. They fell, their trajectory driving them directly east, along the path that would guide them to their destinations. Hego gave her a gentle nudge and she shuffled carefully to the side, allowing him to straddle the device's centrally secured jetback. As they passed a small rectangular park that broke up Capitol Steet, Shego made a chopping motion with her free hand.

The two Wegos flipped backwards off the device as Shego thumbed the jetpack that Wade had affixed to the black surface. Thrusters protruded from the end of the mission backpack, a backpack Shego had seen many times in the past. They flickered, then suddenly roared to life.

Hego cried out and Mego groaned as the device lunged forward. Behind them, two flares of fire descended, a silver mist immediately enveloping the twin's packs. As they passed the distinctive shadow of the Capitol building, the two flares erupted, twin explosions flaring bright yellow, red and orange in the air. But just as sudden, red dots started appearing on the roof of the dome and poured into every opening imaginable, a veritable swarm of Wegos. Mego grinned and gave her an OK sign. She grinned back at her brother. She felt a pat on her shoulder. She glanced the other way, at Hego who was pointing forward. As she turned to see what was fast approaching, she gasped.

Fires littered the long flat green space of what was known as America's National Mall. It was a long series of parks that was flanked by museums and cultural buildings a preserves of every kind, beginning in the East with the Capitol Building whee the Wegos were busy liberating the President and the Joint Chiefs. The Mall ended at the Patomac River Bank and was where Kim was being held, the Lincoln Memorial. One of the world's greatest museums, the Smithsonian, had seen some major renovation. Smoking craters marked the final blasting place of many wayward shells and missiles that Hellbourne's nanites had dissembled in mid flight, their payloads spraying destruction all across the meticulously manicured lawns of East Seaton and Henry Parks. But it was the fast approaching circle that caused her reaction.

The Washington Monument was missing.

_Holy Shit..._

The foundation was bare. There was no rubble. No time to gawk. As they flew past, Shego made a second chopping motion with her free hand. All three Go siblings planted their feet and leaned back, pulling hard on the straps. The rocketing device nosed up as they pulled and shot up for a full second before the jetpack sputtered and stopped in a last flare of smoking fuel.

The device reached an apex, then began its descent. They threw themselves forward, angling the nose of the generator downward, giving them a good view of the quickly approaching Reflecting Pool. A missile roared past as they dipped.

"Holy fuck!" Mego shouted as they got a good look at the shadows the fires had hidden. Five nanite turned helicopters hovered before them, forming a firing line. Below, twenty nanite controlled Abram tanks formed a gauntlet along the large rectangular waterbody. The turrets swivelled towards them.

Shego made another motion. Hego leaned into the machine and triggered the last jetpack they had.

The device thrust itself down viciously as thirty calibre bullets and tank shells snapped through the trajectory they just left. They hit the Reflecting Pool, the siblings slamming painfully against the device as it rose. It was a long graceful arc that slammed down again. The black lozenge shaped device skipped the length of the water in two hundred foot jumps, down the entire two thousand plus feet of the rectangular Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool. As the end of the pool rushed towards them, Hego stood and leaned back to give the device additional upward momentum, before releasing his grip and letting the jetpack take him towards one of the helicopters that were now in hot pursuit. Mego grabbed on to Hego's foot and the two of them rocketed away.

As with the Wegos' packs, a silver mist of nanites immediately enveloped Hego's jet pack. Shego, facing the pursuing nanite controlled vehicles and the tie-down strap tucked into her belt, leaned back, her claws extended behind her, glowing bright green. She lunged forward as her hands whipped around.

Crackling plasma bolts, propelled by concussive blasts, shot skyward. One helicopter was speared, a direct hit. The bolt melted through the entire length of the fuselage, dissipating a few meters behind the stricken aircraft. It exploded in a ball of fire. Another was holed in the tail fan. The stricken helicopter began to turn, slewing wildly. It eventually spun into a crumpled heap at the edge of the reflecting pool, leaking aviation fuel into the water. Its rotors shattered on impact, spraying metal in every direction. Just as Hego and Mego reached the they were aiming for, helicopter, the silver mist on Hego back suddenly erupted in a massive explosion. Two flaming comets emerged, One shining a bright blue, slamming into the copter, crumpling the cockpit and most of the systems. Large blue fists tore a massive hole right through the helicopter as if it were made of paper mache. The other comet, glowing a bright purple, landed on a tank. The entire frame of the vehicle bent as the glow smashed directly on top of the turret. The turret ring warped and the turret stopped turning, the length of its cannon suddenly bending as a tiny but heavy glow jumped onto it.

Shego formed a crackling plasma ball between two claws, this time a wide band ball. She lobbed the shining globe of energy at one of the helicopters. As it neared, a spark jumped onto the flying metal, triggering the sphere which detonated in a field of shimmering green sparks. The electronics, normally hardened against electromagnetic attack but laid bare by the teeming nanites, shorted, and the copter plummeted, ploughing deep gashes in the turf.

She turned and glimpsed the marble stairs an instant before the device smashed into them. It slid up the steps a twenty feet, slewing wildly.

_Oh shit!_

The device came down hard a second time and jarred to a stop. Shego flew off, her glowing feet bouncing high. As her feet left the device, the plasma shield flickered. She slapped a desperate hand onto the non-reflective surface, the other grasping tight the red tie-bown strap as she slid forwards and almost fell off the machine. Her hand flared and the green glow strengthened and stabilized. She sighed in relief.

A sudden nearby blast rocked the flat generator.

"Sorry sis!" she heard Hego bellow out. She slid around the edge in time to see Hego hurling a super condensed Mego overhand through two tanks as he tossed another tank in the same motion. The airborne vehicle's turret turned towards her and she sent an immediate wide band ball at it. It stopped moving as the ball hit and crashed into a tank that was rolling closer, both turrets shearing off their rings.

The device sat precariously on the wide front steps of the Lincoln Memorial. A long gouge trailed down the slope behind it. As she took a better grip on her strap, a dark figure appeared, shock on its face. Instantly, without a word, Shego lobbed a wide band plasma ball at Hellbourne.

Sparks flew from his eye sockets and mouth as arcs of green electricity enveloped him. The black body stiffened and toppled over, statue like, onto the front landing and slid down several steps.

Without a second glance, Shego hauled the device into the Memorial, keeping a bare hand against the shell. Right before the empty throne of the Lincoln Memorial was Kim, hanging from the silver, shimmering shackles made of high concentrations of nanites. Shego's heart thundered painfully at the sight of the lolling head. The rich mass of red hair had been replaced by a blood red haphazard crystalline structure. Red veins pulsed all along the girl's blackened skin.

She pulled the generator until she stood beneath the hanging girl, and after loosing her left hand from the strap and keeping her right on the generator, Shego flicked a few well placed plasma bolts. The silver bands of nanties disappeared as they were struck. She caught Kim as she fell.

"Kimmie, I'm here, I've got you," she said as she lowered the teen to the ground. The girl wasn't breathing. She wasn't breathing! Was she too late? Should she try Wade's inoculator and risk turning her precious hero into a puddle of dead nanites?

_No time, just do it, she's gone either way!_

She knelt down, pulled out the stun stick and jammed it against Kim's side. Bright blue sparks radiated all along Kim's body. Her limbs jerked. Her fingers bent at impossible angles, her limbs flowing like boneless ribbons. Her face lost definition, seemed to blur.

"Kim! Kim! I'm here, come back to me!" Shego roared at the top of her lungs.

Suddenly, Kim's mouth opened and gasped. Her limbs froze and the vibrations faded into solidity, jerking and snapping back into place. Her fingers no longer writhed like tentacles of some blind sea anemone. With a shuddering wail, the crystalline structure melted into the familiar, luxurious pools of red strands. The red veins began to glow a brilliant electric blue, increasingly bright. Shego turned away, her eyes screwed shut against the intense light. Waves of power crawled in a hot searing tide along her skin. After a final, painful flare, the light winked out. She blinked, trying to clear the after images burned into her eyes and turned to see...

Kim.

Kim.

_Kim._

The girl's name echoed, clamoured inside her. Blood rushed to her face as the deep well of emotion suddenly rumbled forth and exploded into song. It was an endless aria of emotion that tingled through her. Thoughts and words were formless as she gazed upon, drew a trembling claw along the beautiful, perfect face of her... her....

_Fuck it, admit it already you cowardly piece of shit._

_Your love._

_You love her._

_She's The One._

_Hell or high water._

Kim coughed and shivered. And started to breath.

Through a mist of unexpectedly happy tears, Shego whipped Wade's Faraday mesh from her thigh pouch. She managed, somehow, to get the girl into the bag quickly, one-handed.

Outside, she could hear her brothers calling to each other, their old codes. The old Team Go teamwork they had practised for hours with glee as children, then with resentment as teens, returning comfortably, like old home clothing. Explosions and the sound of squealing shearing metal resonated in the early dawn air, punctuated by brutal bangs and earsplitting scrapes.

Shego closed the bag's seal, then sprinted to the end of the device, the one with the glowing tube. She trailed a free hand on the device, maintaining the plasma shield. She needed to detonate the device as soon as-

She stopped.

The tube was cracked. The glow was gone.

"Oh, fuck me."


	39. Small Two of Pieces Lyrics

**Small Two of Pieces**  
**Originally Kinkera Kakeru**  
**By Yasunori Mitsuda and Masato Kato**  
**performed by Joanne Hogg**

Run through the cold of the night  
As passion burns in your heart.  
Ready to fight, a knife held close by your side  
Like a proud wolf alone in the dark;  
With eyes that watch the world  
And my name like a shadow  
On the face of the moon.

Broken mirror, a million shades of light-  
The old echo fades away,  
But just you and I  
Can find the answer and then  
We can run to the end  
Of the world.  
We can run to the end  
Of the world.

Cold fire clenched to my heart  
In the blue of night,  
Torn by this pain, I paint your name in sound;  
And the girl of the dawn, with eyes of blue and angels' wings:  
The songs of the season are her only crown.

Broken mirror, a million shades of light-  
The old echo fades away,  
But just you and I  
Can find the answer and then  
We can run to the end  
Of the world.  
We can run to the end  
Of the world.

We met in the midst of morning  
And parted deep in the night.

Broken sword and shield and tears that never fall;  
But run through the heart

Washed away by the darkest water,  
The world is peaceful and still.

Broken mirror, a million shades of light-  
The old echo fades away,  
But just you and I  
Can find the answer and then  
We can run to the end  
Of the world.  
We can run to the end  
Of the world.


	40. Chapter Twenty: Small Two of Pieces

**A/N:**

**Kim Possible and all related characters ©**** Disney**

**Small Two of Pieces © **** Squaresoft**

**I own Carmen Marshall, Autumn Gale and Eddie.**

**Lily is on loan from Love Robin.**

**Song: copy and paste this after the youtube web address "**/watch?v=40A8_h9Uj8o**".**

- KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP -

**Chapter Twenty: Small Two of Pieces**  
_by sweetPixiesmile_

It was so cold.

Her lungs burned with each icy gulp as she gasped the frigid air. Her breath trailed behind her in white frozen swirls. She sprinted across the barren, snow covered field. Behind her she could hear a distant harsh throaty barking sound. Another twenty yards and she would be inside the single storey, thatched farm house. As she neared the front door, her pace stuttered and her leg swung up, kicking just next to the handle. The door burst inwards, the jamb cracking, showering splinters into the simple single room house. Like the rest of the houses she had passed through, looking for survivors or supplies, it was empty, devoid of any sign of recent habitation. She quickly search through the dust covered kitchen and table. A dull gleam caught her eye.

It was a sheathed skinning knife with a mother of pearl handle, but small enough to carry. She picked it up, shoving it into her jacket pocket.

She riffled the cupboards and cabinets, desperate.

She was freezing. And dirty. And tired. And hungry. And achy. And lost. So lost. But the worst part?

She needed to use the bathroom real bad.

She'd been running for ages, always several minutes ahead of those things. She didn't know what they were, had seen glimpses of their dark forms. They were dangerous; she didn't know how she knew, but they were.

The sinister barking sound came again, only closer.

Her head whipped up from another drawer. She trembled, considering, then sprinted out the door. She vaulted a wood fence without breaking stride and pelted through another empty field, leaving a trail of churned snow. The footing was uncertain in the deeply ploughed fields, the snow slippery over the grooved soil.

She wore a mishmash of clothing. A short jean jacket covered a thick wool-knitted hooded sweater. Below she wore flannel lined jeans and some weathered runners one size too large. Anything she could loot quickly from each abode. She had to stay ahead of those things. She had to.

Her foot suddenly missed a step and she tumbled down a steep embankment. The clear, moon-filled sky and the cold hard ground was a confused swirl of dark, deep blue and cold grayish white. Her arms flailed and she was able to stop her tumble by tucking into a roll and standing up. Her feet came down hard, sending a jolt of pain up her spine. She slid, her eyes wide. She'd stumbled down a river bank onto a frozen creek. To the right, she could see a low stone bridge with reeds obscuring the supports underneath. She dashed away to the left on the frozen tributary. She ran for a minute or so, then rushed up the other side of the river and into some deep bushes. She backtracked as quickly as she could, her lungs burning as she breathed in wheezing whimpers. She carefully slid herself under the bridge, crouching in its shadow, arranging the reeds upright behind her.

Soon, she could hear the rumbling panting of the creatures who were hunting her. How she knew they were hunting her was inexplicable. Harsh syllables, growls and grunts filled the air. She could hear them pouring down the snowbank, their claws scrabbling for purchase on the frozen ice. She stayed very still. The sounds milled around for several minutes before another groaning bark sounded in the direction she had made the false trail. With a flurry of claws and ice, the things moved away.

She loosed a breath she hadn't realized that she had held. She waited for a moment, listening intently, then slipped out from under the bridge, heading on the opposite direction, running, running, running.

She sprinted for three miles. At a series of boulders, she climbed gingerly out of the river channel. She could already hear the frustrated braying. She needed shelter. She needed rest. She needed mittens, dammit! As she reached the top of the rock, she looked up at the looming tree trunks of a sparse wooded area. Much of the bottom had some dense brush. She ran through them, the branches whipping at her, tearing at her as she rushed by. The brush became thicker and thicker, the shadows darker and deeper. As she rounded a particularly large tree trunk, she found a large copse of thick shrubs. She pushed her way gingerly into the dark mooncast shadow of the large trunk and leaned against the tree, wheezing. In a few minutes she was breathing normally.

She blew into her hands as she tried to shrink herself deeper into the deep dark shadows under the full moon light. She tried to breath shallowly, to prevent her misted breath from giving away the hollow where she sat back on her haunches, pushing herself as deep into the scrub bush that huddled around the feet of the sparsely forested trees.

She wanted to cry.

They were everywhere. Large, dark red shapes, all jagged edges and glistening teeth. They roamed the open fields and lonely rural roads, searching. For her, she knew. She didn't know why. She didn't know how she got where she was, she didn't know why she was alone. She didn't know why there were nightmarish monstrosities cat all, or why they wanted her. But she knew that if those things caught her, it would be over. Her life would simply vanish, extinguished.

She would vanish, and for what? She couldn't even remember her name.

A rustle of brush and her breath caught in her throat. A dark shape emerged from behind her tree.. Its features were hard to make out, even in the bright pale moonlight. She watched as it moved it's head back and forth as if trying to sense her out, somehow. It stayed very still. Another appeared a few feet away. A third from behind her vantage point. It stood so close, she could have reached out and touched it. Tall, maybe seven, eight feet. The bodies were angular. Dull red spikes protruded from them, elongating and receding into their torsos and limbs.

_Better not get close._

She squinted, hoping the light from the moon wouldn't reflect off the whites of her eyes. She was tired, so tired. She'd been running, for how long she couldn't remember. Four more appeared to her right, seven to her left. They stood stock still. Kim's pulse thundered in her ears, her lungs burning, burning. Her eyes flicked back and forth, in anguished desperation.

_Don't move._

_Don't breath._

She closed her eyes in a fiercely precarious effort to keep from expelling her inhaled air. But the pressure to breathe was getting more and more intense, as if a small tumultuous wind was writhing inside her and was attempting to escape, to force its way out of the confines of her chest and ride the night air to safety.

_Don't, don't, don't..._

She would be devoured by these horrible black things. She would die as nameless, unmourned, unknown.

Suddenly, a flash of silver and blue flew between the trees in the distance. The black ridged heads swivelled as one, tracking the light as it fluttered. The beasts charged, moving in unison. The blue and silver will o' wisp streaked away, leaving a trail of fading glitter. In long loping strides the creatures passed her, more and more and more, so many she lost count after seventy. In the thunder of their passage, she was able to loose the grip on her breath slowly.

After the last creature had passed her, she began to breath normally, trying not to gasp, when suddenly a second small silver light flew around the trunk. She froze, her breath hitching painfully, daring to breath.

"Kim!" a soft high-pitched voice whispered. "Kim!" The spark danced one way, then another. "Hurry, Kim, those things will be back!"

She thought about it.

It was looking for Kim. Who was Kim? As she turned the name over in her mind, a sense of familiarity slipped into place. Kim.... maybe she was Kim.

A trap? Maybe. But without help, she would soon collapse and be discovered. She shuddered, trying not to think about being captured. So. Maybe a trap, or not.

But without information...

"Kim, Wade sent us!"

That name sounded familiar. Safe. There was a confidence attached to that name, somehow.

But should she trust it? She pressed further back into the shadows.

She left the light to wander away, and waited until its minute luminescence was obscured by the thick low brush. She slowly eased around the trunk and sprinted away. Away from things unknown, light and dark. She pelted through the trees, her steps surer, with the driving desperation somewhat mollified by the discovery of opposing factions. But the small sparkling gem of new understanding was crushed as she came upon the edge of trees to a large wide field.

She stared, her hand hard against her mouth, against the sight and smell.

The field stretched into a grey mist, a thin tree line, then continued on, a square of carnage. The neat ploughed lines were scattered and disturbed by the bodies. Black shapes lay in piles, in every direction, their sharp limbs grotesquely twisted. Near several of the larger mounds of corpses, were glimpses of glitter. A statue of a winged figure stood on a large, raised pedestal, it's arms outstretched imploringly towards the sky. An especially large crush of bodies clustered at its base. She crouched, remaining hidden in the thick underbrush, her eyes wide with horror. The stillness had a quiet, defining quality about it, as if the very air had thickened at the havoc wrought in its domain.

She watched for several minutes, undecided if she should disturb the morbid massacre. But she needed to keep moving.

She resolutely stepped out of the tree line and on the the field. She gingerly picked her way past the fallen bodies, their fierce torments silent. Picking her way carefully past the ragged remains, she stifled a scream as she neared the statue.

The glittering spots were pieces of dismembered bodies. Heads, arms, legs, torn apart from slim, long limbed beings, as bright as the others were feral and dark. She began to circumscribe her route, to avoid the angel, but try as she might, she always found her feet moving towards the centre of the field.

A frisson of panic shuddered through her. She turned away and after a blurred moment, found herself heading towards the angel again. Cold, clammy sweat broke out on her brow, her feet plodding unwillingly towards the stone figure. Recalling an old story her mother had read to her from an old tattered book, she closed her eyes,turned away from the statue and walked. She stumbled a few times, her foot coming down sickeningly on horned or smooth flesh. When she fetched up against a hard, unyielding surface, she opened her eyes.

And found herself at the base of the statue. She stared at the chizelled base, and as if against her will, she raised her eyes to the statue.

She was struck by the sorrow in the immobile visage. But even more startling were the tears that fell drop by drop, from its blind eyes. She stared up at the face, so familiar, yet so different. There was an undefinable quality about it that was not quite right.

_At last, you are here_, a voice said.

She stiffened, whipping around. She found nothing but the bodies as her company.

_At last, it may end_, it sighed. At a grinding sound, she slowly, incredulously turned to the weeping angel, to find it's face swivelled towards her. The disturbing tears continued to fall even as the sightless granite eyes were turned toward her.

"W-who are you...?" Kim whispered, fearing to speak louder. Then Kim realized what the statue was saying. "Wait, you know me?"

_You are Kim Possible, the lady of these lands, the light that holds back the darkness._

She blinked.

"Okay..." she drew out incredulously. She rolled the name around. There was a settling in her mind, a sudden epiphanic shiver of understanding that echoed in ever expanding ripples. Kim Possible. Kim. Kim.

"I'm Kim? Well, okay. Then what am I doing here? Why are those things looking for me? The sparks and those monsters?"

_Go to the Tower_, it intoned.

"The tower? Why? Who are you?" Her eyes darted about, scanning the edges of the battlefield for any sign of movement.

_A gathering place, a place to fear. A channelling way, a way to the end._

"Is it safe? Can I be safe there? Is there..." she licked her lips before continuing. "Is there a washroom there?"

_It is a place of beginnings and endings. A place of memory._

"Great. I'm running for my life and here I am talking with a crying statue. What am I thinking?" she muttered to herself, turning away from the fantastical stonework.

_You are caught between heaven and hell. Beware the angels and demons._

"But you're an angel... sort of."

_I am am one of the Caged. It is my purpose to watch these children and despair. But the Tower is a place of power, and you will have need of it._

A sudden braying bark echoed in the bright moonlight. Kim spun, hearing the crashing of heavy bodies through underbrush before she saw the threatening shadows.

_Go, go now. Follow the road there, to the left, toward the church. It will lead you to the Tower. Do not let yourself be distracted. You must reach the Tower before the moon fades completely._

"Why, if I don't make it, what will happen?" Kim's muscles were jumping with adrenaline, twitching to be away. She glanced uneasily up at the moon. She was itching to get away, but she desperately needed more information.

_The End of all Beginnings._

She could now see dark shapes charging recklessly through the underbrush. She noticed a growing glow behind her and turned. Shrouded by the mists in the distant fields, indistinct, shining lights were swiftly approaching.

_Go, now!_

Kim left the statue, heading towards the rock wall lined road. Monstrosities burst out of the scrub brush. The front rank paused by the slight irrigation dip, heads swivilling silently in her direction before charging forward with a braying bark that echoed against the distant hills. Kim sprinted, her heart hammering painfully, her eyes bright with fear. As the virulent stream of black shapes approached, rays of light speared into the horde. They landed with splashes of bright fire, throwing the dark ranks into disarray, shattering the charge. Tall, long-limbed shapes, wielded bright gossamer fire that ran up their forearms and past their shoulders in cruel incandescent waves that streamed behind them as they tore through the endless black and crimson flesh. The vicious abominations turned, fighting off the bright warriors, leaping, tearing, biting, clawing.

Kim vaulted the rock wall and propelled herself down the ice laden road.

She ran until she breath in ragged gasps, her stride a hitching stilt. She ran until her eyes burned and her legs were half ton weights, her footing wavering and uncertain. She dashed past field after field, past the church. She stayed off the road for the most part, running along the deep ditch beside it or parallelling it. Now, with a destination in mind, speed was essential for survival.

At first, she mistrusted the statue's comment about the moon, but as she ran for what seemed like hours, the stationary planetoid did not move, but rather, dimmed. When Kim realized it, a cold lump of dread formed inside her. It was almost a foreign feeling to her, a strange sense of falling down a bottomless pit. It was an unfamiliar and unsettling feeling. With the comprehension came an intense sense of urgency. She was running out of time with only a lunar stopwatch to signal an impending doom. Periodically, as she ran, she would catch glimpses of battle, flashes of light in the midst of clusters of writhing black forms.

She darted past a rural schoolhouse, its pointed steeple a pile of splintered rubble, the window glass strewn all across the open play area. After cresting another sparsely forested hill, she bent over, leaning against the sweat dripping from her afire muscles, down her face.

At least I don't have to use the bathroom anymore, she mused, a wry smile on her pale, exhausted lips.

As she straightened, she could see the road winding down the hill on the left down into a steep valley, then up a densely forested incline, weaving a switchback to a large oddly shaped building. It was a sprawling complex with a ten storey, yellowish curved tower on the far end with green clover shaped and red round structures protruding from a dark brownish middle. A two storey section was topped by a beige coloured bullet shaped tower that had a wide, circular terrace running around the middle; beneath the terrace were light green chevrons. Along the nearest part of the building was almost as tall as the bullet shaped central tower but was windowless and trimmed with a stylized red zig-zag pattern on the ledge of the roof and the patio beneath. Standing almost two hundred feet in the air was a steel antenna. The foundation was a sectioned metal tube, with the final fourth of the antenna sporting glowing red rings and a single large round red globe. The glowing antenna... there was something there that seemed to draw her. Perhaps she needed to be there? Kim had an odd shiver of dread at the sombrero shape.

She carefully made her way down the hill, and silently crouched at the edge of another frozen river. She waited several minutes before spotting a prowling set of sentries that was coming around the bend of the stream, dark and menacing. She glanced up at the moon, it's large round shape rapidly fading. The dark shapes passed just feet away from her hiding spot, muttering in guttural groans to each other. As they began to disappear around another bend of the meandering river, Kim slid quietly out of the reeds and sprinted across. A split second after she stepped silently onto the bank on the other side, another trio of sentries appeared. She waited for them to pass, before breathing a sigh of relief and turning to the steep climb ahead of her.

She tried not to rush. It was hard, because the moon's glow was getting weaker and weaker, and with each passing moment, she wondered if she'd be too late. She scrabbled for cracks in the rock face. Her calves quivered from the strain. One hand after another, she climbed. She could see the dark shrouded figures roaming the road and the cliff's edge. Right foot. Left foot. Heave for the next hand hold.

If her body was aching before, now it burned with a quavering exhaustion, but still she pushed on.

When her hand reached the top, she paused, for fear of detection. Slowly, excruciatingly, she pushed up minutely and peeked over the cliff's edge. The short ten yard swathe of manicured lawn was clear in all directions to the patio of the building. She took a deep breath, and with a painful burst of energy, sent herself hurtling over the edge and onto the shadow of the patio. There she paused a good minute to catch her breath before slipping through one of the patio's double doors.

The inside of the building was cavernous. Narrow, structural beams and long crosswalks crisscrossed in a space that was forty feet to the ceiling. Each sectioned window rose thirty feet and was separated by unadorned niched pillars. Kim glued herself to the shadows, but could see nor hear anything. It took her several minutes to find a stairwell that lead up and opened onto the flat tan coloured roof.

The rooftop was deserted and overlooked the large needle shaped antenna, that stood still another fifty feet into the air. Unable to help herself, she shuffled slowly out into the open, toward the ominous glowing pillar. She stopped, forty feet away from it, the red light harsh against the fading moonlight.

"'Bout time ya got here, Princess," a smug voice said behind her. Kim whirled around and gaped.

A stunningly beautiful pale woman stood before her in a form fitting catsuit, quartered into alternating black and green. Her luxurious dark hair fell in a gently cascading wave down to the small of her back. She had a hand... or claw? placed insolently on a cocked hip, and a challenging smirk on her lusciously full lips. Kim unconsciously licked her own at the sight. But it was the eyes that captured her. Those large, glowing, almond shaped eyes. If she had been unprepared to be caught flatfooted on the rooftop, she was absolutely overwhelmed by the jolt of sudden emotion that detonated within her. It was a confused concoction of feelings: relief, concern, fear, lust, and most unexpected of all, a fuzzy, laughing warmth and trust.

"I know you," she said in a quavering voice. "I _know_ you!"

"No time for chitchat, Pumpkin," the alluring woman said, her twinkling eyes sending an enervating spike of arousal through the fatigued girl. But something was struggling inside her mind, fighting with a desperate ferocity through the thickened tar of her buried memories to surface with a blinding brilliance.

Shego.

Shego.

_Shego_.

The word crescendoed inside her until she quivered with it.

"Shego..." she whispered. "You're Shego... and I... I'm..."

Shego looked up at the fading moon.

"Won't be long now, Kimmie," she said in a soft, sad voice. "I'm coming for ya, but you have to do something." Shego reached out a claw and gently took the stunned girl's hands and lead her toward the antenna. "We have to do something."

"W-what is it," Kim whispered, her voice strangled by suppressed emotion. They stopped at the edge of the roof. The drop, fifty, sixty feet below would kill either of them, if they fell. Directly before them was the sectioned metallic pillar that held up the ball-noosed antenna.

"You'll know when it comes."

"But.... but Shego, why are you here?"

"I am and I'm not. And you have to find me. You're the only one who can save me, save us." Kim shook her head slowly.

"I don't understand! Just say it, already, please!"

Suddenly, lightning flashed down from the heavens onto the antenna. Kim could taste the tangy pungent smell of ionized air on the edges of her tongue. Shego's body lit up as the electrified air washed over her. The antenna was glowing, glaring with brilliant light.

"Time for us to go," Shego said, holding Kim's hand tightly, reluctant to let go. She took a step back and poised as if to jump.

"Wait, what?" Kim looked at the pale green face of Shego, then glanced at the brilliant pillar of light.

"Do you trust me?" The piercing green eyes looked at her. Kim stared back before her own lips quirking with her own smile. She took a step back.

"Yeah. I do." As if it was a signal, they both leaped into the arcing, intense light.

Into heaven.

Into hell.

Into pain.

Into death.

Into rebirth.

Kim Possible's body restructured itself, and she took a breath.

- KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP -

The first thing that pricked her awareness was sound. It was a weird indistinct yelling. The second thing that piqued her interest was the muffled dark she was in. The last was a deep, dense ache that seemed to pervade her body. She lifted her hands to find some sort of material covering her. She squirmed slowly, careful with her sore limbs and digits, before finding the opening of the strange metallic bag that she was inside. With intense concentration she slid open the tie of the bag, hauling as hard as she could from her restricted position. It opened far enough for her to see the string tie that held the bag closed. She wormed her stiff fingers into the knot and slipped the string. She then turned over onto her belly and wriggled herself painfully out of the bag.

It was a confusing blur of images that she saw, a disconcerting muddle of sound that greeted her.

She lay facing the wide open front of the Lincoln Memorial. A large black oval shaped disk-like device was about thirty feet away, to the left from her. Crouching at one end was Shego, her two fists shoved into a hole, where an intense blue light was emanating from. Shego's face was a mixture of torture and concentration. Kim was before an empty Memorial throne. She could see a dark, black foot that stuck up just over the lip of the stairs.

"Hurry up sis!" bellowed a voice to Kim's right. She turned her heavy head to find Hego wrestled to the ground by.... the statue of Abraham Lincoln? Hego punched the statued in the face, marble spraying everywhere, but as he drew back his hand for a second blow, a marble hand swung around and smacked him, five feet into the wall, which cracked and shattered, pulverized pieces of limestone falling to the ground. Kim turned around in time to see a section of the Lincoln Memorial roof and the north wall of the building, above Shego, torn from the foundation by what seemed to be a humanoid figure made from the Washington Monument. Pillars fell, rock and debris rained down. Kim rolled to the side with a constricted gasp, just as forty pound piece of roof fell where she was just lying a moment ago.

_Omigawd..._

"Keep the fuckers off me! You know how hard it is for me to make blue plasma?" Shego roared back. Blue electrical arcs spidered along Shego's arms. "Gah!! Shit!" It looked like it hurt.

Hego waded back in, grappling with his whole body glowing a bright blue, until he kicked at the leg, shattering the joint. Kim could see a greyish metallic substance, almost like molasses expand and seize the falling limb, pulling the stone back into place.

"A little help here!" cried a high pitched voice. A purple glow could be seen running the length of the Washington Monument arm, searching for something inside a joint.

"Hands a little busy right now, Meegs!" Shego hollered. "I set this off, and those centurion project nanites should short- Gahhhh!!" Shego shuddered as more blue arcs appeared. "Gimme a minute!"

"We'll help!"

"We gotcha back!" Red glows multiplied all along the joints of the legs. The Monument spun drunkenly to deal with the new threat.

Something caught Kim's attention.

A black figure, ignored by the Go siblings, Hellbourne, his black form shifting sickeningly. He was pushing himself up onto hands and knees. He was standing, swaying precariously, sparks flaring out of his distorted mouth. His right arm was turning into a three foot spike. He was turning toward the preoccupied Shego. _Towards Shego..._

_No!_

Kim pushed herself up to her feet. She struggled to stay conscious, her vision suddenly wavering and blurring. She stumbled forward as Hellbourne shuffled toward the crouched woman.

_Omigawd, will I be too late?_

It was a stilted, jumbled race, Kim wobbling along, Hellbourne falling to his knees once, twice. Kim forced her pain laced, stiff limbs to respond to her, overpowering any protests with the strength of her will, to move faster, farther.

Hellbourne was ten feet away, eight, six.

He stood over the crouched woman. He was saying something. Shego was glancing over her shoulder, away from Kim. He was pulling back his spike even as Shego turned away visibly redoubled her efforts, the blue light suddenly shining brilliantly. Not fast enough, not soon enough.

Kim lunged.

Her world was ripped away, drowned in a convulsing tsunami of pain and light.


	41. Til Kingdom Come Lyrics

**Til Kingdom Come**  
**by Chris Martin**  
**Performed by Coldplay **

Steal my heart and hold my tongue  
I feel my time  
My time has come  
Let me in  
Unlock the door  
I never felt this way before

And the wheels just keep on turning  
The drummer begins to drum  
I don't know which way I'm going  
I don't know which way I've come

Hold my head inside your hands  
I need someone who understands  
I need someone, someone who hears  
For you I've waited all these years

For you I'd wait 'til kingdom come  
Until my day, my day is done  
And say you'll come and set me free  
Just say you'll wait, you'll wait for me

In your tears and in your blood  
In your fire and in your flood  
I hear you laugh, I heard you sing  
I wouldn't change a single thing

And the wheels just keep on turning  
The drummers begin to drum  
I don't know which way I'm going  
I don't know what I've become

For you I'd wait 'til kingdom come  
Until my days, my days are done  
And say you'll come and set me free  
Just say you'll wait, you'll wait for me  
Just say you'll wait, you'll wait for me  
Just say you'll wait, you'll wait for me


	42. Chapter TwentyOne: 'Til Kingdom Come

A/N:

Kim Possible and all related characters © Disney

'Til Kingdom Come © Coldplay

I own Carmen Marshall, Autumn Gale and Eddie.

Lily is on loan from Love Robin.

Song: Copy and paste this to the end of the youtube web address "/watch?v=wc3KqucCVN4"

- KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP -

**'Til Kingdom Come**  
_by sweetPixiesmile_

The audio fades in, strange distorted noises that ghost in and out of recognition before settling into a familiar rhythmic sound. The chup-chup sound of a helicopter's rotors can be heard in the background as a woman's voice shouts through the noise.

"This is Autumn Gale, Global News Network's Kim Possible Special Correspondent, coming to you live from the nation's capitol where just 24 hours ago a terrorist, known only as Hellbourne, has been holding hostage the entire House of Congress, including the President, Vice-President and the majority of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

"It's unclear how he has been able to do so, but the might of the United States Military has been completely ineffectual against him. There have been reports of the military's own weapons and vehicles somehow, turning on their human operators.

"It was into this carnage that international acclaimed hero, Kim Possible, was asked by the remaining Joint Chiefs to deal with the perpetrator. Known throughout the world for her skill and success in diffusing strange and difficult situations, Miss Possible seemed the logical option for the rescue mission under the cover of a massive military assault. Unfortunately, the action was met with disastrous results.

Less than ten hours ago, a live feed of a captured Kim Possible, being brutally tortured by Hellbourne was activated in all the servers of all the major Communications and Media corporations around the world. All the major networks, in an unprecedented move of journalistic compassion, deliberately powered down their networks and satellites to prevent such a heinous act from being transmitted. However, Hellbourne was somehow able to... retain control over the... portions of communication technology, and has long since been broadcasted over the internet via live webcams.

"The five-member team of supers, the famous, though non-active group known as Team Go, arrived on the scene only thirty minutes ago. After some consultation with the Operational Commanders and vouched for by international Anti-Crime Task Force Global Justice, the heroes were sent in with the same task as Miss Possible, but with the additional task of rescuing the teen hero. An official source that wished to remain anonymous has confirmed that Shego, the international felon that Miss Possible had admited to having a romantic relationship with just two weeks past, was leading Team Go.

"Not more than five minutes past, an immense, bright blue flash could be seen for miles around. It was so bright it looked like an atomic bomb had been detonated in the middle of the National Mall, the centre of so many monuments of American history. Since then there has been no communication with the terrorists, but it appears that his power to control metal has dissipated.

"When we arrived on the scene, we were commandeered, being the only helicopter in the area that still worked. While we were still refuelling, a group of paramedics and Doctor Betty Director, the head of Global Justice, approached us with urgent orders to enter the city and head for the Lincoln Memorial.

"We're just crossing the Potomac River now. The bridges have all been destroyed, with only the supporting columns visible over the waters of the river. Oh.... Oh god... The Lincoln Memorial is just coming up...oh my God... the.... half the Memorial building seems to have been simply .... blown a-apart. There's debris everywhere...

"Looks like the war memorials are still standing...

"We're now setting down near the Korean War Memorial... The area is in shambles; some of the statues have fallen over or are just simply gone. Fires can be seen everywhere. Entire buildings seem to have collapsed. Smashed tanks and fighter jets litter this end of the National Mall..."

The screen flickers, then suddenly fades in. A dark and huddled, crowded helicopter, paramedics clutching their cases and equipment as they duck out and an young dark haired woman slowly following out of a helicopter. The sky is golden and cloudless, the greys fleeing before brilliant heralds.

"Hey, your light's on! Are we getting visual?" The woman looks into the camera. The cameraman's thumbs-up can be seen in the corner.

The woman fusses slightly with her hair as the whine of the helicopter rotors wind down.

"As you can see," Autumn says as the camera begins to pan around, away from the woman, "craters dot the ground. A number of armoured vehicles jut out of the murky waters of the Reflecting Pool, their fuel still burning atop the surface. Over turned cars, dirt and smoke are everywhere. There seems to have been quite the battle here. The soldiers have stated that the explosions had been heard as far as the safe-zone, twenty miles away. Piles of rubble are everywhere. It's hard to believe that this is Washington.

"Let's get to the Memorial, c'mon."

The camera image bounces sickeningly. Slowly, they mount the ash stained eighty steps, scrabbling over the rubble, strewn carelessly across the stairs and into the broken and shattered colonnades

"It's like a a war zone. Oh god... The statue of Lincoln.... is no longer there... no, it's lying in pieces over there..." The camera focuses on a white alabaster pile of stone. Only half the face is recognizable, the rest a cracked ruin. "Wait, What's that?"

The camera slues toward Autumn, who can be seen pointing towards the destroyed half of the building, then turns in that direction. There is a crater; flickers of blue energy can be seen coming from it. The camera arrives at the edge, and pans over the lip, shooting footage of the thirty-foot crater, the floor melted to crystalline smoothness.

"Fred, what's that.... over there... what?" The camera zooms to the centre, figures shrouded by the darkened sky, grey smoke swirling by. As the cover clears, they spot shadows kneeling. The sound of stifled crying can be heard beneath Autumn's frantic calls.

"Hey... Hey! Over here! They're over here!"

The figures, now distinguishable, are six individuals, huddle at the centre of the crater. A hulking blue man, his bloody and pockmarked back bare from a jumpsuit torn down to the waist. Beside him, a skinny purple man, covered with dust and grime, holding a dangling arm. On the opposite side, two young teens, identical and in red, wipe their eyes with the backs of their arms.

In their midst, a green woman, her skin burnt and blistered, streaked with dark green blood, cradles another; a girl, naked, covered in blood, so much bright red blood, flame red hair a post-apocalyptic halo. As the camera approaches they can hear the broken hearted voice.

"Don't leave me.... don't go, Princess.... don't leave me..." it begs.

The blue man whimpers slightly from repressed sobs, a hand held tightly to his mouth. The purple man puts his healthy hand on a blue shoulder and hangs his head.

"C'mon.... hang in there.... Kimmie..."

Tears begin to roll down the twins' cheeks. They wiped futilely at them with grimy fingers, leaving dirty streaks.

"Open your eyes.... please, Kim.... just -" the voice tails off.

"I... I should have told you... that day... with the northern lights..." it continues, huskily gulping down the grief, trembling with the effort of holding back the overwhelming sorrow.

"I-" it cracks, unable to continue.

"Tell,... now..." comes a low, hoarse reply.

"Kimmie!" the voice gasps. A green claw trembles as it smooths out blood soaked hair.

The scrabbling of the paramedics drown out the next few words as they scamper past the camera. They slip and slide on the crystallized floor of the crater.

"... tol' you...now you..."

"I love you, Kimberly Anne Possible," the words tumble out even as the barely conscious woman goes limp.

"Kim. Kim!" the haggard voice screams as the paramedics converge on them, obscuring the figures from view.

Suddenly, a hand covers the lens and forces the camera down.

"Autumn, what...?"

"Some things... shouldn't be filmed," replies a husky voice as the image blurs and careens over the crystalline floor. "Some things should still be... are sacred."

The screen flickers.

Fade to black.


	43. Answer Lyrics

**Answer**  
**by Sarah McLachlan**  
**Performed by Sarah McLachlan**

I will be the answer  
At the end of the line  
I will be there for you  
While you take the time  
In the burning of uncertainty  
I will be your solid ground  
I will hold the balance  
If you can't look down

If it takes my whole life  
I won't break, I won't bend  
It will all be worth it  
Worth it in the end  
Cause I can only tell you what I know  
That I need you in my life  
When the stars have all gone out  
You'll still be burning so bright

Cast me gently  
Into morning  
For the night has been unkind  
Take me to a  
Place so holy  
That I can wash this from my mind  
The memory of choosing not to fight

If it takes my whole life  
I won't break, I won't bend  
It will all be worth it  
Worth it in the end  
'Cause I can only tell you what I know  
That I need you in my life  
When the stars have all burned out  
You'll still be burning so bright

Cast me gently  
Into morning  
For the night has been unkind


	44. Epilogue: Answer

**A/N:**

**Kim Possible and all related characters © Disney**

**Answer © Sarah McLachlan**

**I own Carmen Marshall, Autumn Gale and Eddie.**

**Lily is on loan from Love Robin.**

**Betas: P.D. Perl and Requ. You're the best!**

**Song: This will be the only time I'll ask you not to play the song until partway through the chapter; you'll know when from the text. Copy and paste this after the youtube web address "**/watch?v=i8B1ai25lUo**"**

- KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP -

**Epilogue - Answer**  
_by sweetPixiesmile_

_Holy fuck I hurt._

She twitched slightly. Her entire body felt as if it was being sanded down with rough sand paper. She tried not to move. Even opening her eyes felt like someone was drawing a dull notched knife across her lids. Puss leaked from her cracking eyelids into her eyes, stinging. But Shego did not scowl, or swear. She didn't grimace or snarl at the excruciating suffering that seemed her lot at this point. She knew she must look like roadkill that had been left for too long in a deep fryer. Any movement would crack the drying crust of burnt skin that covered the new one growing in at a furious pace. She didn't move, but she could see the video camera in the upper right corner of her room. She could see the pristine, shell white walls, the solid concrete painted ceiling, the heavily reinforce security door.

_Aw, shit._

And now she was wake. She was in pain. She was locked up.

Shego was not very happy at this moment.

The door opened.

A tall, short haired woman entered, her eye patch a dark black vortex. The tanned woman's face was a study of stoicism. She walked over to the far corner and lifted a stool that Shego hadn't seen from her supine position. She moved with a weary deliberateness, avoiding the suffering woman's blurred gaze.

"Kim..." Shego spoke, her voice as cracked as her skin, before she knew what she was saying. Betty paused for a split second, a stillness in her face that caused Shego's heart to jump in unexpected agony that made her injuries pale in comparison. Betty placed the stool by the bed and sat down. Even through the oxygen tent, Shego could see the drawn and exhausted features of the woman's face.

"I shouldn't tell you," Betty said, with a heavy sigh, after watching her for a minute or so. "She... she'd lost a lot of blood. She'd been stabbed by Hellbourne, right through the liver. She was bleeding out..." Betty's face was haggard. Shego gritted her teeth, the pain helping to bolster her against the dread. "The paramedics stopped the bleeding, got the saline into her... she barely made it to the operating table." Betty looked away for a moment, surreptitiously wiping at her good eye. She sighed again and turned back to the immobile super.

"The surgery was a success. But... she... hasn't woken up yet."

_There's something wrong with her._

"Tell."

Betty stared at the woman before her for a long, drawn out moment, her face a mosaic confusion of emotion, before a silent stillness returned, a resignation, a withdrawal fromt he field of battle before the suddenly bright eyes of the comet powered woman.

"We... don't know. She's been through a lot. Maybe too much. We're... not sure, if she's... still... Kim." Betty hunched down, as if cringing before the blow that she'd delivered.

A shiver of horror ran skittering through Shego.

_I've got to get out of here. She needs me._

She closed her eyes against the misery now clear on the womans face. She stayed that way, waiting. After a few minutes, she heard the stool scrape, the scuff of combat boots and the sound of the door opening and closing. Sleep. She needed to sleep, to allow her comet powered body full reign in healing. Until she could move, she was useless to Kim.

And Kim needed her.

She lay, waiting for sleep to claim her so her body could focus on the task at hand.

- KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP -

"Sorry, sir, I haven't been given orders-"

"Fuck that, I'm going in."

Shego was really beginning to hate being awoken. She knew it was irrational. But then her stomach growled so loudly, her eyes snapped open despite the flash of searing pain. Her sheets were stained with the yellowish, pussy fluids of a healing body and were being changed three times a day. With as little irritation and stretching possible, she half slid, half fell out of the hospital gurney. The door opened as she leaned back into the bed. She was dizzy.

"Jeeze, you never give up, do ya, sis?" Mego said, a bag under his arm, the other holding the door open. He was wearing a sailor's jacket in a deep plum colour, with large sparkling silver buttons. His slacks were an even darker purple velvet, his shoes, black canvas hi-tops.

"You know it," she gritted out through clenched teeth, ignoring the fact that she was completely naked. Mego rolled his eyes and reached for the extendable table, putting the bag down. "So what the fuc-" Shego began, stopping suddenly when the most beautiful aroma struck her. She stared at the brown paper bag that Mego had just deposited on the table.

"Is... that what I think it is?"

"You look like something the devil just shat out."

"Tell me something I don't know, Tiny," she growled irritably.

"Don't take that tone with me, Sheegs," Mego said with the smug reassurance of a man in control. "Or this goes with me when I leave. And that's in about three minutes."

"No, wait... " her eyes widened at the thought. Her mouth was already watering at the thought of roast beef. That was not going to walk out the door unless it was just a pile of bones. "Uh,... thanks for dropping by..."

"Thanks Sis. Sit back, I'll get this for you." As Shego tried not to shuffle back onto the bed, Mego reached out and pulled an eight pound prime rib roast that was wrapped in foil and a stack of napkins. Shego's eyes literally lit up at the sight and her stomach gurgled loudly. He deftly pulled out the bottom of the bag, then tore the paper down one seam. He folded the impromptu place mat flat on the table. Shego stayed sitting.

"I'm in a fucking facility, aren't I?" she muttered. "The last thing I remember is sitting in the chopper holding Kim's hand."

"Yup. You passed out," the purple man said as he carefully uncovered the hunk of meat, forming a small tray with the thick aluminum wrap. "I was surprised you were still up with those third degree burns all over your front."

Shego stared as he stood back. After a moment, she lifted an eyebrow.

"No fork or knife?" Mego simply smirked back. She grunted, a flash of annoyance cutting through her haze of discomfort.

"Is it the classic?"

"Yup. Well, I've made some changes since you've had it I think. Some good quality brandy, some fresh garlic in the rub, but it's still mostly just coarse salt and pepper. Still triple A Alberta Angus, cap on, the way you've always liked it."

"You mean...?" Shego's face brightened.

"Blue rare. Can't believe you can eat it like that, it's just so.... uuuurrrghh," Mego waved a dismissive hand.

Without another word, Shego seized the still warm meat and tore into it. For a few moments there were just the sound of chewing and brief groans of pleasure. Within minutes, she had eaten almost two pounds of beef. If there was one thing her brother excelled at, other than being a self-centred prick, it was cooking.

"Thanks, Meegs, I mean it," she spoke around a bite.

"Enough for me to come back to our balcony at Marshall's?"

"Yeah," Shego paused as she tore another hunk with her teeth. The juices and drippings were trickling down her hands and down her forearms, leaving bright red trails. "Keep 'em coming and you're all invited." She paused to dab with the napkins. "So give me the down low. Thought you needed to be out of here?"

"I got a few. You and Kim are in a top secret Global Justice facility. I'm here because Director's signed family visiting rights. We've been pretty busy since Washington. The villains are going bat shit crazy, with both of you out of commission. GJ's so desperate they've even called us in."

"Kim, what about Kim?" Mego paused for a moment.

"She hasn't woken up Shego. Her body's breathing on its own, but they can't get any scans. She's different. Something's changed. I asked Wade, I knew you'd ask, but even he's not sure." Mego pulled out his handheld device, and after a moment of fiddling, he placed the device directly next to her ear. Shego could barely hear the genius's voice.

"I said we don't know!" Wade's voice was sharpened by frustration, his consonants slurred by exhaustion. "We don't know if she's still human or not. Or how much of her still exists. All I know is that the nanites have somehow merged with her organics at a sub-molecular level. Builders, controllers, generators, filters, Faradays... they've all been absorbed."

"She still looks the same, Wade. Tell me something I can give Shego, alright?" There was a the sound of a creaking chair and a long heavy sigh.

"Ok. I must be nuts, telling you this stuff. Do you know your quantum chaos?"

"No, but just go ahead anyway, Shego does."

"She does? Uh... well, I can't get any scans. Something's blocking the MRI, the entire bandwidth of energy refraction. That's because I think all the nanites are still there. But they've worked themselves into the spaces between the atoms, somehow. That with Hellbourne's programming and the with the size and sophistication of the battlesuit nanites, I think that they've merged with Kim's organics. I mean they couldn't really convert all her organs and her circulatory system without killing her. It was waiting to do the final push because it needed to set the framework for the last push. And we're talking about machines that are way smaller than nanorobots or nanofactories; that's the real secret of the battlesuit. We're not talking about trillions or quadrillions of nanorobots at the nano level. We're talking about centillions of yoctites."

"Centillions? Yoctites?"

"Centillions, like six hundred zeros. Yoctites, just add another ten zeros in front of nanite. Atoms are only maybe point three angstroms, or thirty picometres at their smallest, simplest form. But there's a lot of space in between."

"So... uh... you think the... yoctites? Have filled in those spaces some how? How's it even possible for this stuff to exist?"

"This tech is straight from the blackest of black ops. The centurion project was peanuts. My real work is on this stuff, which is definitely alien in origin. Everything's manipulated at the most minute quantum levels. I even use peptide assemblies to manipulate-"

"Just stick to Kim, please? Now, she was naked after the blast; what happened?"

"The yoctites simply slipped themselves into the protective fields of the atoms. They're so damned small they wouldn't disrupt them. The battlesuit, or what you see of it, is really just the macro constructs that the yoctite factories create. Not only that, I'll bet the Faradays protected the controllers that were trying to reach Kim's nervous system. Don't ask why, but it could be part of the programming code that I've done."

"So is Kim still.... human?"

"I don't know. What do you call someone who's entire make-up has been reinforced by a self-replicating, self-powered atomic lattice?"

"So why isn't she awake yet, then?"

"I hate to be repetitive, but again, don't know. No scans. My theory is that the yoctites are trying to find some sort of equilibrium. I mean, sooner than later, the yoctites need a stable energy source. The human body can theoretically generate thousands of watts an hour. They're probably trying to find ways to tap into Kim's bioelectrical system with out harming the source of power, likely a mitochondriatic harvesting system."

"So.... they're like, parasites? Is this catching? Is this like black Spiderman or Venom or what?"

There was a barking laugh of derision.

"Wow, that's pretty loaded. First, the catching thing: I doubt it. Each person is so unique, that the amount of power needed to sync with someone... really remote. But yeah, I guess the analogy of symbiosis might actually apply, without the take over your brain aspect, since the AI's so primitive. So not really just parasitic. I'll bet Kim could call the battlesuit into being or even do some minor morphing. Even her DNA may have been affected. Without any way to scan her... there's no real way of knowing unless we cut a small piece out of her... and I won't let that happen."

"Thanks Wade."

"Look, can you not tell anyone else this stuff? I've just let you in on some kill-you-dead level secrets, okay?"

There was a brief squawk of digital interference when suddenly Wade's voice came through clearly.

"Shego? Fry this thing as soon as you're done."

Shego lifted a greased hand, slapped Mego's phone to the ground with a flip of a claw and flicked a plasma bolt at it. The acrid smell of burning electronics and metal filled the room as Mego yelped, dancing back from the flames.

"Sorry Meegs, I'll getcha another one. Wade's call."

"Fuck, Sheegs, I had all my contacts and stuff on that!"

"Are you still doing backups, like I told you to? Besides, if Wade can hack into your phone remotely without you knowing and tell me to flash your phone, someone else could."

"Well, yeah... alright, alright, fine. But you owe me the top of the line." Meego looked at his purple tinted, amethyst Rolex. "Oh shit! I gotta go. Get better fast, Sheegs. Kim's not doing well. I heard she was having seizures."

She bit into the beef in reply as the purple man waved his good bye and left.

Shego sat in her bed, greedily eating the eight pound roast, the blood-like drippings leaving bloody rivulets down her arms and chin. Her entire front was a sheet of crusted scab, a parchment patchwork that shifted and shimmered. She knew the clean-up would be torturous, but she needed the protein for her powers to continue its accelerated healing process.

"Ugh!" Shego jerked back, her teeth aching. With a slight jolt in incredulity she dug her claws and pincered the hard object until a small corner poked out. It was a familiar handheld... not just any handheld. It was hers, her phased quantum satellite communicator. A bit damaged from her teeth. She surreptitiously palmed the device, carefully invisible to the camera in the corner of the room, and slid it under the covers.

She felt a sudden thrill of exhilaration and an odd wriggly warm feeling. It was one of the thing she'd left in her secured room in Drakken's lair that she had regretted leaving behind. How this had gotten from the lair to Mego, she would have to find out. She wasn't sure how Mego had snuck this past her captors. She suppressed the urge to laugh and flip a finger at the camera. She needed to eat. The faster she recovered, the faster she could be with Kim.

She took another bite, chewing the tasty, buttery soft meat methodically.

- KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP -

Betty Director sat on the utilitarian stool as she watched Shego, a scowl on her face. The thief no longer required an oxygen tent. The majority of her front was scabbed over, the protective crust already drying, cracking and falling in patches.

"You're looking peaked," Shego smirked. Betty looked pretty much the same, with her tightass, professional mask on, but the thief could read another person's body language like an open book. The harried demeanour of the blue jumpsuited woman was like a bugle call on a cold winter morning.

Betty ignored the verbal jab as she gathered her thoughts for the conversation before her.

"Something giving you trouble?"

Betty's eyes narrowed for the briefest fraction of a second, but Shego, carefully observing her, noted it with satisfaction.

"I've heard you've been requesting to be moved to Kim's room," Betty began, her words unhurried with a resigned reluctance.

"It's going to happen whether you like it or not. And if she wakes up, you know she'll want me to be there. Besides, if she wakes up and isn't Kim anymore, you can't stop her from turning this place into a slag pile."

"We have every confidence that we will be able to handle that if the situation arises."

"Then you must losing your touch, Bets. You know Kim's track record," Shego snorted in derision. Her chest suddenly constricted painfully as she let slip some of her tightly controlled emotion to voice a traitorous thought that had occurred to her. She had little else to do but think, paring down each boring hour, confined in her bed with nothing but her private recriminations, anxieties and suspicions. "Unless you have a kill-switch?" she asked, her eyes leaking a bit of green plasma.

Betty's face purpled with a violent emotion that Shego could see her visibly struggle with. It was several minutes before the woman spoke, through gritted teeth.

"That. Will not. Be. An. Option." The head of Global Justice bit off each word, leaning forward. Her dark eye stared piercingly at Shego, full of quietly channelled rage. The mint green thief counted to twenty-three.

"Good. Oh, by the way, thanks for the catheter. That really helped. And for taking it out yesterday. That shit is no fun. And thanks for letting Team Go visit me."

"Yes. I see that the food they've been bringing you has help you greatly in your recovery."

The villainess shrugged noncommittally in response.

The security door suddenly banged open as a blue suited Global Justice agent burst into the room.

"Sir! It's Miss Possible! She's having a major!"

Betty was off the chair and out the door before the man finished his sentence. Shego was right behind her, her scabs cracking painfully, but her well trained perception processed everything, storing away each item of note for future reference.

"Hey!" called out the cluster of her jailers as she raced out of the secured recovery room.

"I'm with her!" she called back, pointing at the sprinting woman. They darted down a few corridors and it wasn't until they stopped at an elevator that Betty noticed her. The look of supreme annoyance, dislike and concession that made Shego smirk deepened at her reaction. The elevator arrived in a few seconds, and the two woman entered the lift as the agent who had brought the news skidded around the corner, just in time to see the doors slide shut.

"You haven't been telling me enough. What's with Kim. Spill!"

"Alright, alright!" Betty said. "Just put me down!" Shego blinked. She hadn't been aware that she had seized the head of GJ and was holding her aloft, pressed tightly against the elevator panel. She lowered the woman and released her. Betty massaged her shoulder that comet powered woman had slammed against the wall.

"Kim's been having seizures. We don't know what's going on. We can't get any blood, the nanites block any attempt to get a sample, or a scan of any sort. Wade has a theory, that the nanites are just learning to live in equilibrium with the organic parts of Kim. My science staff are more bleak with their theory."

"What's that?"

"That Kim's organics are destabilizing and she will either die or fulfil Hellbourne's plan, like a ticking time bomb."

"And who do you believe?" The elevator was slowing to a stop.

"I," Betty glared at her, clearly enunciating her words, "have given Wade GJ sub-server access with a team of experts. Who the flying_ fuck_ you think I _want_ to believe?" Shego grinned at the woman's use of language as the doors slid open. Betty rushed toward a large twenty foot by twenty foot vault door, Shego on her heels. The heavy multi-ton metal door had a three foot gap. Betty didn't pause in her headlong dash and slipped deftly through the narrow space. Shego did a full twist floating pike through it and sprinted without losing any forward momentum from her landing. She heard the woman ahead of her snort with annoyance. It hurt like hell to be running and tearing open her scabs, running practically naked in her hospital gown. Their footfalls rung in dull brittle clangs against the metal walkways. Shego looked around as they skirted the periphery of a large array of electromagnets. The comet-powered woman could feel the charged air prickling against her skin.

"You've got Kim in a molecular collider facility?" Shego noted in surprise.

"Seems to keep her calm," Betty panted back at her. They ran down a narrow corridor and nearly collided with a man in a white lab coat. Shego noted his broken nose, blood was dripping from his hand.

"Sir, she's broken loose from her restraints. The men are trying to keep her down, but-," the technician stopped speaking with a shrug.

"Get yourself to the infirmary, I'll take command," Betty said, slipping past the battered man, Shego right behind. They entered a large chamber. The far wall had ten large, evenly spaced doors, ten feet high. There were three additional levels, each with another ten metallic vault doors, with yellow metal walkways at each level. Shego recognized the tall, athletic red head hovering by the only door ajar. As they approached, Betty slowed to a quick trot, nearing a door that was wide open. The sound of men straining and speaking in strained tones to each other came from the room. Just as they reached the door, Shego reached out and grabbed Anne's collar and jerked her back as two men came flying out of the room. The doctor said nothing, but her eyes... Shego turned to look at Betty's shocked face.

"Not working, I'd say," Shego quipped over her shoulder. She charged in. Three men wrestled with a shaking form on a mattress on a concrete shelf. Two held on for dear life to the thrashing shadow, another was attempting to hold the arms together. As she neared, there was a brief blue flash. The two holding the legs were thrown off the shelf, the other flew up and hit the ceiling with a thud, then fell senseless to the floor. Shego could see Kim's body, shaking and flailing, her hospital gown torn. She immediately jumped onto the mattress and put Kim in her best immobilizing hold.

Shego could feel the inhuman strength flowing through the girl. She groaned as Kim surged in her arms. Each struggle was fiercer and was accompanied by a brief blue flash. The girl was literally vibrating.

"Calm down, Kimmie! Calm down," she pleaded with the girl. "It's okay, I'm here, it's going to be..."

Suddenly, Kim's mouth opened and thick red liquid splattered on the floor.

_Shit..._ Shego stared, her chest contracting painfully. The liquid continued to pour out of Kim's mouth in fitful spurts.

A portly black boy dash up and scooped up a small sample with a blue handheld.

"It's not blood.... it's not blood!" Wade's voice was ecstatic. Anne ran in with a syringe but even though Betty and one of the uninjured men immobilized the teen's arm, the needle bent and broke. Anne fell back with a cry as Kim tossed the man, flipping him onto the Director of Global Justice. They fell in a heap. Kim strained against her and Shego readjusted her grip. If the girl continued seizing, it couldn't be good for her. Shego glanced about and saw only Betty and Wade, who looked on with stark helpless faces. Anne was treating one of the other men for a mild concussion, the others having been cleared out and escorted to the infirmary. Betty rushed forward, only to be unceremoniously kicked out of the vault by Kim's shaking legs. Wade yelped, ducking as the tall woman flew overhead, landing in a heap just outside of the threshold. Wade scurried over to the fallen woman, helping her to a sitting position.

Kim's shaking was getting worse, the surges coming more frequently. Shego knew soon, she would not be able to hold the quivering girl down. Her own scars were taking a toll on her, the constantly moving girl tearing shreds of unready scabs. Sweat beaded all over her body as she strained to keep Kim still. Shego looked up again, but knew that there would be no reinforcements. Anne stood to the side, a small disk in her hand, her face twisted with horrible indecision. Betty was shaking her head, holding her side, trying and failing to get up. Wade knelt by her side, his brown face green and sick with futility. Another flash, and Kim nearly broke her hold.

She sighed and took a deep breath.

And began to sing.

"I will be the answer," she began, tentatively, "at the end of the line."

Kim's body immediately seemed to relax at the sound of her voice.

"I will be there for you, while you take the time" Shego's voice gained in confidence as the shaking subsided.

"In the burning of uncertainty, I will be your solid ground. I will hold the balance, if you can't look down..."

The unconscious girl folded down in a slow languorous droop. Shego relaxed her grip as slowly, dropping to her knees. She laid the girl on the ripped mattress.

"If it takes my whole life," she crooned as she lifted the covers from the ground and tucked in her red-headed lover. "I won't break, I won't bend. It will all be worth it, worth it in the end."

Shego held the girl's hand in her own and knelt on the cold concrete floor, her eyes filled with the vision of her perfect Princess, and the promise she was letting out of her recently resuscitated heart. The words were swelling with pregnant emotion, pouring out of her in fervent waves.

"Cause I can only tell you what I know, that I need you in my life." It was a painful, wonderfully liberating truth. It was something she never thought she'd say, get a chance to say to anyone, anyone at all. Not since Caitlyn.

"When the stars have all gone out, you'll still be burning so bright." She smoothed away an errant lock of hair, unable to stop staring, stop touching the hero. Her hero, her very own, who had saved her from a mire of an emotional dead zone of her own choosing. The girl had torn her from that particular circle of hell through the force of her trust, loyalty and devotion.

"Cast me gently, into morning, for the night has been unkind," she sang as she traced the girl's eyebrows, her cute nose, her temptingly innocent lips, the adorable swell of her cheek. "Take me to a place so holy, that I can wash this from my mind."

Shego knew she was damaged. Had issues. But they paled in the light that Kim cast in her life. The long shadow of Kim's singular warmth all but smothered any protests she might have had... and injected so many things into her life that she had never realized that she had missed, and the greatest of all was that ineffable, ephemeral, creationist emotion, hope.

"The memory of choosing not to fight...." Behind her, she knew there were strangers watching. She knew their names, had some sort of relationship with each, but they were outsiders to this, the most crucial of bonds that she shared with this slip of a girl. Mother, friend and mentor, they were trespassing on this moment of intimacy. It was a privilege Shego granted them by nature of necessity, because Kim needed them. And that was all that mattered.

"If it takes my whole life, I won't break, I won't bend." What if Kim never reawakened? Shego made her decision, the only one she would choose at this point. She would stay with her. She'd spent so much time desperately holding on to herself, there was almost an odd sense of deliverance as she gave up control of herself. Tears gathered in her shining eyes.

"It will all be worth it, worth it in the end," her voice trembled. "'Cause I can only tell you what I know, that I need you in my life." If Kim wanted her to take up hero work, if Betty demanded it as the price of being with Kim, she would do it. She'd already done something she'd vowed she'd never do again, teaming up with Hego for anything but selfish gain. Well maybe it was selfish gain. She watched Kim's chest rise and fall in rhythmic slumber.

"When the stars have all burned out, you'll still be burning so bright." What was the world without someone like Kim? A deeper, darker place that Shego wasn't sure she'd want to remain in. Kim was hers, and she would not give her up. She picked up Kim's hand and pressed it against her forehead, her eyes closed.

"Cast me gently into morning," she whispered, tears in her eyes, the promise coming to a final few words, "for the night has been unkind...."

Shego swiped at the tears, scrubbing her face and gruffly glancing behind her. The three stared at her with vastly different emotions. Wade's eyes were wide with shock. Anne's eyes brimmed with tears, her hands pressed against her mouth. Betty's was a mixture of intense jealousy, resignation and grudging respect.

"Sh'go," came a soft murmur. Shego's head snapped around, her heart pounding painfully in a sudden effluvia of joy. She turned to see emerald green eyes looking at her from under heavy lids. "Sin'gin... call'd me... h'me."

"Kim," was all that Shego could choke out.

"L'k ter'ble," the girl said,the corner of her lip quirking. Shego laughed.

"Yeah. Yeah I do, don't I?"

"Tire'd.. sl'p," the girl's eyes blinked slowly, once, twice, as if the few words spoken had drained her completely.

"Sleep, Princess. I'll be here."

"L'v yoo," the red-head mumbled. In the next minute she was fast asleep.

Shego couldn't help grinning like one of those idiots.

- KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP -

The next time she woke, there was no one at her bedside. In the background, she could hear the soft beeping of a heart and blood pressure monitor. Kim struggled to sit up, but it was too much for her bed-ridden muscles. She turned her head to her right and saw the green woman sprawled uncomfortably on a nearby couch. A light, tan coloured hospital blanket covered the woman; someone had tucked her in. She was dressed in a light grayish blue suit over a charcoal grey pencil skirt. Her thick, rich black hair was swept back and neatly tucked under a light blue headband. Her two inch sharp toed pumps were identical in colour.

The sound of the door opening drew her attention to the foot of her bed. There she saw her mother, a hand clenched against her mouth, tears shining beneath the long lashes Kim had always envied. She wore a formless black sweater and a cream coloured hip-hugging denim pants. She clutched a handheld device tightly to her chest; she had seen her daughter's open eyes staring at the woman on the couch. Anne rushed to her and wrapped her arms carefully, tightly, around her world-saving daughter. Kim worked her mouth to gather enough moisture to swallow and speak.

"Mum," came a stranger's voice, furry with disuse.

"Oh, Kimmie! Kimmie," Anne sobbed. "You're awake! Thank God!"

"No' th'r drama," Kim mumbled, shocked at her lack of strength. When Anne leaned back, Kim asked, "Hosp'ital?"

"Yes, dear. Back in Middleton. You-" Anne paused for a moment before continuing. "You've been in a coma for three weeks now. But you're back. You're back!" Anne felt as if she would start crying again and hugged Kim again.

"Sh'go...?" Anne turned to the slumbering green woman. The woman's left foot and arm hung off the small hospital furniture, she slept with her head hanging off the armrest, her mouth open.

"She's been here since the beginning. She and her brothers saved you. But she said you saved her too." Anne's brow furrowed slightly. "Betty wanted to keep you in one of the Global Justice facilities. She had you inside a nuclear arsenal storage room! Can you believe that? But this reporter, Autumn Gale,... she kept hounding them, kept after them, even took a crew to the very facility you were in, was able to sneak into your room!" Anne's eyes softened when they drifted to Shego. "Betty suspected her, but couldn't prove it. Shego was under twenty-four hour surveillance, and there was no proof." Anne turned back to her daughter.

"Luv 'er, mom... Dis'pnt'd..?" Kim's sea-green eyes looked down, unable to meet Anne's sparkling blue. When the brain surgeon spoke again, her voice was heavy with guilt.

"Never, Kimmie, never. Your father and I.... We're ready to accept Shego, if that's what you want. And Shego, she showed us what she felt for you when she went into Washington to save you, and afterwards. You're our daughter. Nothing can change that. And we love you."

Kim's eyes began to water. As muddled as her head felt, Anne's candid words and guileless expression filled her with a shining dawn of contentment.

"Tnks... mom." The two redheads hugged again, but as Anne leaned back her handheld fell to the ground with a loud clatter.

"Huh? Whu...?" Shego bolted to her feet, hands at the ready, her sleep-blurred eyes trying to focus as she swung her head back and forth in confusion, before focusing on the two redheads.

The Possible women burst into giggles. Anne backed away, knowing what was coming.

"Kim...? Kim!" Shego flew to the girl's side and hugged her.

"Sh'go...!" Kim coughed. The woman loosened her grip and clasped her claw-tipped hands around the girl's own.

"Kim... I..." the woman's shining green eyes were alive with a light that she'd never seen before. "I-.. it's all changed, different..." She looked at the hesitating, flushed villainess, so different from her normal demeanour when she was struck by a dim flutter of memory. Kim felt a sly smile quirk on her face. "Uh, I mean,..." The woman's flustered gruffness was an endearing display that was supercharging her appetite.

_Just a few minutes awake and I'm ready to sneak attack her?_

"I know, Sh'go... you don' ha'ta say it." Kim was mesmerized by the woman's lips. Without the black lipstick, they looked fuller, more enticing. A grin was spreading itself across her lips. Shego looked... younger.... without her eyeshadow, mascara, lipstick and foundation. Kim felt a tremendous surge of energy.

"No... no Kim. I gotta... I wanna say it." Shego closed her eyes, took a deep breath. She let it out, then opened her eyes and looked resolutely into Kim's deeper green ones. She noted that there seemed to be bluish silver flecks in her eyes that lent an alluring glow to the girl's pupils...

_Had that been there before? Get a grip, you're trying to have a moment here!_

Shego shook her head with a groan of frustration, then repeated her breathing exercise. She spoke as she opened her eyes.

"My real name is J-mmmph!" Kim leaned forward and gently placed a long, lingering kiss on her lips. Shego's face flamed a dark green her eyes wide and frightened, but soon clouding with smoky excitement before closing. She returned the kiss with an intensity that left the two breathless when they finally drew apart. Anne coughed in embarrassment.

"Sheeeeeegoooo," Kim purred, nuzzling the graceful line of her lover's neck. "You blush so beautifully."

"Damn, Princess," Shego spoke, her voice husky from repressing the urge to moan, "you really can do anything."

Anne slipped out. The two Global Justice agents by the door smiled at Anne's tear-filled eyes as she strode to the nurse's station to make some phone calls with the good news.

- KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP -

**A/N:** A shout out to Requ and P.D. Perl to help me with the only beta'd chapter of OWOA! You guys rock! Wow. I never thought I'd be able to finish a humungo multi-chapter like this. Thank you all for sticking it out with me and I hope you enjoyed the ride as much as I did. Also to those who've made song suggestions, please keep 'em coming! I'm picky, but some of them will get used for sure. There's a sequel in the works, although I probably won't get to it for a while. I need to finish off the action adventure of Blood and Bondage first, and finish fleshing out the next. Here's the summary that will go up for the next instalment. It's a bit wordy, so it'll likely change before it gets posted.

**Ordinary Miracle**** by Sarah McLachlan**  
Kim and Shego are trying to make their relationship work, but life isn't so easy. Shego must face her past, and come to grips with the events surrounding Caitlyn's death. And Kim? What do you do if you're a world-saving hero, but the greatest threat to the world... just might be yourself?

Soon to follow is the old epilogue, in all it's craptacular glory, and completely unedited! You'll notice there will be a number of continuity breaks in that one since I wrote it before chapter.... twelve? Something like that.

Any questions or comments are welcome!


	45. Discarded Epilogue

**A/N: **This epilogue I wrote about six months ago. When I wrote Chapter twenty-one and started in on the epilogue, I thought, wow, this was pretty bad! It's nice to know that you can change, even in those few months as an author. But it wasn't just poorly written. It used a cheap gimmick that I felt was unfair to you, my readers. It also revealed too much of the wrong kind of information, and was so poorly written I was embarrassed to post it as an official chapter. But I also didn't want to just lose it, like the other ten chapters that never made the final cut. SO here it is for those of you interested in how an author can be an asshat. I might have even gotten away with it, but it's neither here nor there now.  
**  
- KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP -**

Discarded Epilogue  
_by sweetPixiesmile_

She stood at the door, staring down into the empty expanse, her heart laden, as heavy as with hell bound chains. She could hardly speak, even as the air rushed into the plane.

Her partner finished checking her harness, valves and straps, given her the double pat and a thumbs-up sign. She was glad they couldn't see past the shadowed faceplate of her helmet. The expression might cue them off.

The indicator light was still yellow. She tried not to think, tried to remember what she had planned, the letters that she couldn't bring herself to write. The airtank strapped to her upper back was heavy, the parachute that she herself had packed and was now strapped to her thighs making her waddle as she approached the door that would give her the freedom she desired, craved. She didn't bother spotting. She'd done this a million times. Adding another one wouldn't hurt, but this one would have a little surprise at the end.

_Don't think, don't think, don't think_ she ran through her mind, a dead woman reciting her final prayer. _Don't think about what you've left behind, don't think about who you've become, don't think about all the shit that you've been through. Just breathe. It'll be over in a few minutes anyway._

She glanced back at her partner, wondering if her plans had been discovered and torpedoed.

Green light.

Shego jumped.

The wind was a muffled whistle as she tumbled out in glorious free fall, a series of graceful front loop somersaults before going to her neutral position, carefully spreading her arms and legs. The sun was high and bright, the water below a deep sapphire blue with patches of green that reminded her-

_Shit, don't think about it, just don't!_ But she couldn't help it. The woman's thoughts were simply just full of her, and she couldn't stop.

_Dammit!_ she screamed in her head to cut off the flood of memories, tears gathering in her eyes.

She swept her hands back and brought her knees together, straightening her legs in a practised movement. The air slipped around her and she plummeted. The thought stopping speed was finally beginning to set off a buzz in her head, her blood pumping in great gasps from her scarred, selfish heart, thundering through her, in her attempt to erase her thoughts, to erase everything.

Useless, it was all just futile.

Scattered remembrances of red hair and green eyes filled her with an ache, a longing, a torutre that would never be relieved. And in the midst of her torment, the words started tumbled out, soft, tremulous, but clear.

"Everyone needs compassion,

Love that's never failing;

Let mercy fall on me."

Falling, falling, falling, Shego was falling and she would never be able to come back up into the blue expansive loneliness of her evil existence.

"Everyone needs forgiveness,

The kindness of a saviour;

The hope of nations."

It was a song that she'd begun composing all those months ago, drawing on dusty skills that had greatly atrophied. Skills that seemed a lifetime away, that had been stored away and forgotten, like much of her early life. She paused, trying to calm the turbulent emotions traipsing through her. Useless, as before, even now. She knew, this was it, things would never be the same again. She had made her choice.

"So take me as you find me,

All my fears and failures,

Fill my life again."

Suddenly she felt a gentle touch on her left hip. She glanced over. Her partner had pulled up beside the free falling super charged woman, red hair streaming behind a tight, clingy white suit with blue trim.

"You have got such a beautiful voice, Sheeego," came a sweet, teasing voice over the radio built into the helmets. The green tinted woman felt her cheeks warm, but she continued her paean, stronger than before.

"I give my life to follow

Everything I believe in,

Now I surrender."

Shego's tears trickled down her cheeks as she laughed with unadulterated joy, barrel rolling swiftly even as she reach terminal velocity. Her lover's answering giggles rang in her ear; Kim's lithe form wove in and out of the green woman's trajectory.

"Princess, she can move the mountains,

My girl is mighty to save,

She is mighty to save."

"Forever, source of my salvation,

She rose and conquered the grave,

Kimmie conquered the grave."

They circled each other, somehow connected, yet separate. Falling at bone-breaking speeds, their joy spiralling up into the blue, limitless sky even as they fell to earth. The two lovers tracked toward a small crescent shaped island with palm-trees, surrounded by a wide swathe of white sand. She could see the manic grin of the hero and returned with one of her own. She sang out the words with fierce pride, a challenge to the heavens, an adulation for her angel, her Princess.

"Princess, she can move the mountains,

My girl is mighty to save,

She is mighty to save."

Kim slid in front of the singing woman, holding out her hands. Tentatively, the black clawed fingers slipped into her grip and for the briefest of moments, their helmets clicked gently together, before the red-head flew back, backward looping, trailing a loud whoop. Shego tracked in pursuit of the girl.

"Forever, source of my salvation,

She rose and conquered the grave,

Kimmie conquered the grave!"

The song floated up even as parachutes, one black and green, one blue and white blossomed below, floating side by side onto the island. She knew, she wasn't the same.

Shego didn't care.

Why?

_Because, y'know, it's right._

* - * * - * * - * * - * * - * * - * * - * * - * * - * * - * * - *

Kim glanced worriedly at her partner. The Thief had been strangely silent during their pre-breathing prior to the high altitude, low opening jump. She'd not seen the tension in the woman since she'd opened her eyes in the hospital, six weeks ago.

The tension had all but drained from the woman as Kim's fluttering eyes opened on the woman's anxious face. In the background, she could hear the soft beeping of the heart and blood pressure monitor. Clawed fingers clutched her bandaged hands tightly. The woman looked like she hadn't slept well; dark puffy rings sagged beneath dulled green eyes. The green skin was flaking from the burns suffered from the massive EMP pulse the woman had used to disable Hellbringer's nanites. Now, it just looked like the thief was in the healing process of sunburn.

"Princess..." the woman whispered, a dry desperate sound, tears filling bright green eyes. Kim stared for a moment, not used to seeing such emotions in the face of her arch-nemesis.

She opened her mouth to greet the love of her life, but only managed an inarticulate croak. Seeing the woman, alive and well, seemed to sap away her energy and she lapsed into the swirling vertiginous dark.

The next time she woke, there was no one at her bedside. With a rush of fear, the heart monitor's rhythmic beeping suddenly spiking in speed, Kim struggled to sit up, but it was too much for her bed-ridden muscles. She turned her head to her right and saw the green woman sprawled uncomfortably on the couch. A light, tan coloured hospital blanket covered the woman; someone had tucked her in.

The sound of the door opening drew her attention to the foot of her bed. There she saw her mother, a hand clenched against her mouth, tears shining beneath the long lashes Kim had always envied. She clutched a handheld device tightly to her chest; she had seen her daughter's open eyes staring at the woman on the couch. Anne rushed to her and wrapped her arms carefully, tightly, around her world-saving daughter. Kim worked her mouth to gather enough moisture to swallow and speak.

"Mom," came a stranger's voice, furry with disuse.

"Oh, Kimmie! Kimmie," Anne sobbed. "You're awake! Thank God!"

"No' th'r drama," Kim mumbled, shocked at her lack of strength. When Anne leaned back, Kim asked, "Hosp'ital?"

"Yes, dear. Back in Middleton. You-" Anne paused for a moment before continuing. "You've been in a coma for three weeks now. But you're back. You're back!" Anne felt as if she would start crying again and hugged Kim again.

"Sh'go...?" Anne turned to the slumbering green woman. The woman's left foot and arm hung off the small hospital furniture, she slept with her head hanging off the armrest, her mouth open. She wore a formless black sweater and dark green hip-hugging denim pants.

"She's been here since the beginning. She and her brothers saved you. But she said you saved her too." Anne's brow furrowed slightly.

"Luv 'er, mom... Dis'pnt'd..?" Kim's sea-green eyes looked down, unable to meet Anne's sparkling blue. When the brain surgeon spoke again, her voice was heavy with guilt.

"Never, Kimmie, never. Your father and I.... We're very sorry for the way we reacted. And Shego, she showed us how she felt for you when she went into Washington to save you. You're our daughter. Nothing can change that. And we love you."

Kim's eyes began to water.

"Tnks... mom." The two redheads hugged again, but as Anne leaned back her handheld fell to the ground with a loud clatter.

"Huh? Whu...?" Shego bolted to her feet, hands at the ready, her sleep-blurred eyes trying to focus as she swung her head back and forth in confusion, before focusing on the two redheads.

The Possible women burst into giggles. Anne backed away, knowing what was coming.

"Kim...? Kim!" Shego flew to the girl's side and hugged her.

"Sh'go...!" Kim coughed. The woman loosened her grip as Anne slipped out. The two global justice agents by the door smiled at Anne's tear-filled eyes as she strode to the nurse's station to make some phone calls with the good news.

Inside, Shego held Kim's hands within her own and stared into the fathomless depths of sea green eyes.

"Kim, I love you. I will never leave you again. The world, the villains, the governments can go fuck themselves, but you, you're mine. I'm so sorry. I'm here for you, now and always." As Shego choked out the emotion filled words, Kim's tears began to fall through her smile.

"I love you, Shego."

The comet powered woman lowered her lips ever so gently onto the hero's, in a heartfelt kiss. The heart monitor to beeped faster and faster. They broke apart, touch of Kim's panting breath eliciting a shudder of desire in the dark haired woman.

The same woman was wooden while the hero checked the harness, the oxygen tank valves and the tubes that connected to the helmet. She jerked hard at the straps, trying to get the woman out of her silent, brooding funk, but the woman had that dead serious look that Kim was coming recognize. It was the face Shego wore when plagued by some earth-shattering revelation about herself. As Kim completed the check, she patted the woman hard twice and gave the thumbs up sign.

It had been hard, so hard, to return to her life after being so.... exposed... in public. She had a mixture of fear and trepidation; knowing that her violation had been broadcasted for the world to hear. But her greatest, private shame was that she had given in to despair. That her voice, the voice of a hero, of freedom, had been reduced to begging for mercy.

One small consolation for Kim was that at least Hellbringer, for all his madness, had not been interested in sexual violation.

All the medals and accolades from the various world governments could not hold back the nightmares, and debilitating flashes of remembered pain, shame and bottomless fear welled up within her at the oddest times. Only the woman who stood beside her, right now wracked with nervous energy, had been able to calm her when she awoke screaming from dreams filled with darkness, blood and humiliation. It was in the green woman's arms that she had been able to sleep soundly, quietly, after months of waking nightmares.

"I'm here for you, Kim," was the promise that she gave.

Shego had moved into Kim's room at home, after the teen had collapsed in a mission against the comet-buffed thief and Drakken. Shego's shocked face was all she needed to tell her how she looked. She had literally fainted into Shego's arms, even before they were able to begin their fight. The woman later told her that she had looked like "Death warmed over." Fortunately, Ron and Rufus had beaten Drakken while Shego held the unconscious hero; carried her, when the lair had begun to self-destruct. Anne and James had not been comfortable, but after seeing the woman's effect on Kim the next few days, they had welcomed Shego with as much nonchalant celebratory family events as possible.

That nearly drove the green tinted woman to drink.

Mechanically, the green trimmed, black suited woman staggered to the jump door. Kim watched her glow-girl with a mixture of concern and overwhelming warmth. Now six months after the Hellbringer incident, Kim smiled at their first vacation together. Shego had been adamant about not letting Kim in on the destination, claiming it was a surprise.

Green light.

Shego dove out, somersaulting in graceful arcs. Kim rolled her eyes at the show the woman was putting on.

Kim dove out, a step behind.

As Kim tracked the woman from behind, knowing that Shego simply needed time for whatever it was that was bothering her to bubble over. That for herself, making the woman happy was the greatest adventure and thrill in the hero's life. It was a commitment that she was willing to make.

Forever and ever.

The woman began mumbling, her voice rhythmically indistinct over the radio. The mumbles became louder and louder. The realization that the woman was singing in a tasty, husky, spine tingling contralto brought a smile to the hero's lips. Kim tentatively touched Shego's hip. The woman looked into her eyes and broke out a great big smile, that Kim had never seen before.

And as the woman laughed and barrel-rolled, Kim knew all was right with the woman.

Which simply played the thief right into her very capable hands.


End file.
